Harry Pride, Year Two
by DarkScales
Summary: Cub and the Pride are back at Hogwarts, but old Dumblybore and Christopher Potter are determined to make him pay for last year. Meanwhile, everybody's convinced that he's the Heir of Slytherin, and the fact that Flare looks just like an unusually colored cobra isn't helping at all. Oh, dear... Sequel to Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Could-Speak-to-Pokemon.
1. Summer Vacation

**So, this is the sequel to Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Could-Speak-to-Pokemon. Um, not really much to say, other than yes, the new character introduced is indeed your rival from Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum. And that this is kind of a filler until I can get them to Hogwarts, when is when the real fun starts. Enjoy, and please let me know what you think!  
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**And if you're a new reader, please read "**Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Could-Speak-to-Pokemon" first, because otherwise you will not understand a thing that is happening. Thanks!****

****Disclaimer: Um, do I have to? Yes? Dangit. Anyway, considering I'm not even British... no. I wish.****

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><p>"Roadtrip!" Devil howled gleefully as Cub magically packed his bags with a wave of his hand. We had decided to take a month-long trip to Sinnoh, and revisit the Pride's homeland. Even though some of our species, such as Flare and Draca, were primarily found in Kanto or other regions, Sinnoh was where we had all met and formed the Pride, as well as where we'd met Mewtwo on his travels and, later, Cub. Hence the reason we considered it our homeland.<p>

"Everything packed? Food, clothes, weapons?" Koga asked as he entered the room. He and Aya would be staying behind to take care of the gym. Or rather, Aya was- Koga had recently been asked to become one of the Elite Four of the Indigo Plateau, to replace the previous poison-type master that had retired a few months before. Of course he accepted, and we'd all had a large celebration that lasted through the night and didn't end until three in the morning.

"Check, check, and check. Relax, it's not as if this is the first time I've gone traveling," Cub rolled his eyes slightly. I grinned from my spot in the sunbeams that came through his window and yawned widely. True enough, though it never hurt to err on the side of caution.

"Alright then. We'll see you in a month, okay?" Aya said as she came in as well. She leaned against the doorway and hugged Cub as he passed through. "Stay safe, Harry."

"I will," he replied. "And don't worry. Worst case, I always have my magic as a final trump card."

Then he exited the house, the Pride now at his side in full size, and we all traipsed into the woods surrounding the gym.

* * *

><p>"Hey, you!"<p>

Cub turned and looked at the young trainer that had called out to him. A quick once-over showed the the boy was younger than the young wizard, only had one pokeball at his belt, and was most likely a fresh trainer just starting out on his journey. "Yes? Do you need something?"

The kid grinned confidently. "Hey! Let's battle!"

Cub blinked for a moment, then broke out laughing. Around him the rest of the Pride did the same, pokemon version.

"Ha! That rookie kid thinks he can stand up to Cub? Cute," Glider snickered as he covered his mouth with one wing.

Cub echoed his words, "You think you can stand up to me? Kid, here's some advice- don't pick fights with trainers who are obviously stronger and more experienced than you. Stick to people who are more your speed."

The boy glared and shook his head. "Come on! You can't be that strong; you only look like you're a few years older than me!"

Cub just shook his head and suppressed a chuckle. "Age isn't a factor here, experience and numbers is. You only have one pokemon, probably a starter from Professor Rowan, right?" The trainer opened his mouth, probably to ask how he knew, but Cub just kept talking. "While on the other hand, I travel with six pokemon who are all at their highest evolution level and have years more battling experience than you. Several of my pokemon are also quite rare or come from a different region all together, meaning that whichever of the three starters you have, I have a pokemon that has both a type and level advantage over it, and chances are you aren't going to know what type it is as you probably haven't seen it before. Just face it kid: you're outmatched."

The kid shook his head in defiance and stomped his foot childishly. "I don't care! Besides, it'll give me an idea of what level I have to get to if you're a strong trainer so I can become the champion!"

Cub sighed. It was kinda cute at first, but now it was starting to get a bit annoying. "Look, I actually have somewhere I need to be, and I don't really feel like dealing with you now, so why don't you just run along and battle with somebody closer to your own level?"

The kid growled and took out his pokeball. Cub rolled his eyes and turned away, heading back along the road towards Eterna Forest. The six of us followed him, but before we had gone more than a few yards we heard the distinctive sound of a pokeball releasing its tenant.

"I won't give up until you battle me!" the little trainer yelled defiantly as he stood behind a chimchar, who wore a similarly determined expression.

"Look, it doesn't seem like this kid is going to leave us alone anytime soon, so why not just let me take care of it real quick and we can be on our way?" I offered, tail swishing irritably. Cub looked at the chimchar, then at its trainer, and nodded.

"Sure, but try to make it quick. I do want to get to Eterna Forest before dark."

I grinned ferally and padded over to stand in front of the young pokemon, looming over it intimidatingly. "Don't worry, we've got plenty of time."

"Alright. I assume you don't need me to dictate?"

"Cub, need I remind you that while in human years I am younger, I _did_ help raise you for four, almost five years or so? I'd hope that after surviving that, I could easily defeat a young chimchar on my own."

"Okay, okay, I got it."

The trainer frowned. "Whaddaya mean, 'don't need me to dictate?' And why are you talking like you can understand it? I know pokemon can understand humans, but humans can't understand pokemon!"

Cub shrugged. "Eh, that's actually not entirely true. If you've been around pokemon for a long time, and you've really learned to work with them as partners, you kind of learn to read their body language, their personalities, and such. I've been fighting and living with mine so long we kind of share a special connection. Besides," Cub smirked. "I've always been able to understand pokemon on a deeper level than most other people. Now, are we going to battle like you wanted, or not? I don't have all day."

The kid gritted his teeth and growled slightly. "Chimchar! Use ember!"

I easily dodged the weak fire attack and leapt towards the smaller pokemon with a roar, watching as its eyes widened in fear. One heavy whack across the face with my paw (careful to keep claws sheathed) sent it tumbling back, completely knocked out. I raised my head and smiled with satisfaction. That should teach him not to pick fights with trainers above his level. It may not have directly hurt him, but his pokemon had paid the price. And if he was even a half-decent trainer, he'd put his pokemon's needs before his own.

"Chimchar! You okay, buddy?" he gasped and ran over to his pokemon. Well, that was a good sign, at least. He wasn't one of those kids who saw pokemon as little more than tools to power- he was just overconfident and rash. A bit like Cub used to be, actually, before we almost had to beat it out of him.

"He'll be fine. Just spray this on his wounds and they'll heal up in a second." Cub tossed a potion he'd had in the bag to the kid. He looked up and caught it, startled.

"What? Why?"

Cub sighed again. "Look, I'm trying to be nice here. Just take it; it's not powerful enough to really heal any of the Pride all that much so it'll be of more use to you. So if you've learned your lesson, I really do need to get going. Come on, guys."

We turned and started heading down the road again, but were once more stopped by a shout. Cub groaned in exasperation. "Again? What is it this time?"

The young trainer asked, "What's your name?"

Cub tilted his head to the side and let his lips quirk into a small smile. "It's rude to ask other people's names before giving your own, y'know."

"Fine. I'm Damien Johnson. And you?"

"Harry Pride."

* * *

><p>"Alright, you can come out now, Damien. Really, if you're going to stalk somebody, at least be a little more subtle about it. I knew you were there from the start."<p>

The kid poked his head out from where he'd been hiding behind a tree. "Whaat?! How'd you know?"

Cub sighed for umpteenth time that day. "Well first off, you weren't exactly being quiet, secondly, you were standing upwind of me, which meant that the Pride could smell you, and thirdly, I could see your reflection behind the bush in that pond I stopped at earlier. You might want to consider getting something to cover that messy hair of yours. It sticks up so much I think it adds an extra few inches to your height."

Damien stepped out fully and crossed his arms across his chest. "Hey! I like my hair the way it is!"

Cub raised an eyebrow. "Hm. Then perhaps you consider not stalking people."

He bristled. "I wasn't _stalking_ you! I just, uh, happened to be going to same way!"

"Really," Cub said flatly.

"Yeah!"

"Kid, you are a horrible liar. Now seriously, why are you following and/or stalking me?"

Damien opened his mouth, then closed it again. He kicked at the dirt a little with his shoe and looked anywhere but at Cub. "Um… well… Iwaswonderingifyoucouldteachmeplease!" he said quickly.

Cub blinked. "Er, what?"

* * *

><p>We ended up spending the next month just traveling all over Sinnoh, with Damien in tow. The kid tagged along in hopes of learning how to become a great pokemon trainer, and practically idolized Cub. It was actually kinda cute, but for Cub it was just embarrassing.<p>

At the moment, we were in Snowpeak City, skiing. The numerous ice-type pokemon that inhabited the snowy peaks the city was named after kept the entire region in a perpetual state of winter, enabling one to go and ski there anytime you wanted. Convenient. And memorable, as these slopes would inevitably bring to mind the Great Snowpeak Sledding Incident from a few years ago… now _that_ was fun. The look on all those trainers' faces was hilarious.

"Hah! Can't catch me, slowpoke!" Damien yelled gleefully as he skidded down the slopes, making a beeline straight for the bottom. I rolled my eyes as he shot past my spot where I was sitting in a small copse of trees with the rest of the Pride. Cubs these days…

Great, now I feel old.

"Oh, is that a challenge?" Cub called back mischievously, a wide grin plastered across his face. He leaned forward and streamlined his body, then swerved into a side area where skiers could do tricks off of ramps or a large half-pipe. He blew past all other people and zoomed off a ramp at top speed, flying high into the air. This allowed him to gain lots of ground and land just in front of Damien, who was gaping in shock.

"What the heck! I didn't even know a jump that high was _possible_!"

Cub laughed and shot past the younger boy, weaving around all the other skiers like flags in a slalom course. Within a minute he was back at the bottom of the hill, and from my vantage point about midway down the slope I could see the large spray of snow he kicked up as he stopped. A couple other skiers shot him dirty looks as they were hit by the spray, but Cub just ignored them and looked up at Damien as he sped down the slope to stop beside him an instant later.

"That. Was. AWESOME!" he yelled exuberantly, loud enough so that we could hear him all the way from where we were watching.

I purred with contentment. Even though he hadn't intended to at first, Cub did end up taking Damien under his wing, and I think it was good for both of them.

* * *

><p>"Whaat?! You're leaving?! Why?!"<p>

"Because I have to go back to Kanto, remember? I told you that last week. My friends are waiting for me."

"But can't you stay a little longer? Pleeeease?"

"No. You're strong enough to take on at least the first two gym leaders easily, and isn't that why you were tagging along in the first place? To get stronger?"

"Yeah, but…"

Cub smiled and ruffled the younger kid's hair. Since Cub's height better matched boy a year or two older than he actually was, it was easy for him to do so. "Relax, you'll be fine. I can't be around forever, y'know. And besides, I know for sure I'm going to come back to Sinnoh someday, to maybe we'll meet again. 'Kay?"

Damien looked down at his shoes. He'd matured in the month he'd been traveling with us, and now had a tanned and slightly older appearance. He'd also caught more pokemon to add to his team, bringing it up to the maximum of six. The rest were sent to his PC at Professor Rowan's. Cub wouldn't admit it, but I think he was secretly proud of how far Damien came in just a single month, both in maturity and skill level. He wasn't strong enough to challenge the third or fourth gym leaders yet, but with time and training he'd get there. The kid had potential, and lots of it.

"Okay. Promise?" He looked up hopefully, milking the Puppy-Dog Eyes (learned from Devil) for all they were worth.

"Promise."

* * *

><p>Cub's twelfth birthday passed relatively uneventfully. He had a small party attended by Mewtwo, Koga, Aya, Hermione, and Neville, whom he'd persuaded (begged) Mewtwo to bring over. The powerful psychic type hadn't been all that thrilled with the frequent inter-planetary travel, but in the end he'd grudgingly agreed. He could never say no to Cub, anyway.<p>

His two magical friends also stayed for the rest of the summer, and the three had a great time training, exploring, and terrorizing the poor trainers that came to the gym in hopes of winning a badge. Koga, who was now an official member of the Indigo Plateau Elite Four, wasn't around as often so Aya took over. She made an excellent gym leader, especially once her venonat evolved.

Cub had also taken to dressing up in full ninja gear and popping out of random places with shuriken to scare challengers, which was hilarious to watch. I swear, one boy almost peed his pants. There were a couple Cub had to save from falling off the cliff into the gorge, though. But the challengers' expressions were always fun to see once they realized they'd just been tricked and scared by a kid either the same age or even a bit younger than them. Hermione and Neville enjoyed this as well, and even convinced Cub to teach them a few moves. While they were nowhere near as good as he, however, they were better than most Hogwarts students their age- if only because unless they were Quidditch players, most didn't get very much physical exercise at all. And if they were pureblood, they also considered "muggle fighting" beneath them. Idiots.

Anyway, overall, the summer was fun and relaxing. Cub's two friends bonded more closely with their pokemon, learned a few martial arts moves, and generally had a great time. Cub simply enjoyed being with his friends, hanging out, and relaxing after the eventful school year.

Except, until Dumbles sent the yearly school letters, which were delivered by Mewtwo (who grumbled because "what did he look like, a mailman?") that had a new rule stating that all magical figurines and animated objects were prohibited because they "disturbed the learning atmosphere for other students."

Yeah right, he just wanted an excuse to get rid of the Pride. When Hermione saw that line, she blew her top and went on a rant about how it was completely unfair and how he had no right to do that. It took fifteen minutes, Neville, Cub, and Amethyst to calm her down.

"Hey, relax, it's fine. I'll figure something out," Cub told her with a grin. "Don't worry about it. No matter what, the Pride's gonna get to Hogwarts, one way or another."


	2. Pokemon Masters Meet the Wizarding World

**ACK! I'M SO LATE! Sorrysorrysorrysorry! ****I apologize to all my readers that this was so late, because my life just got extremely busy in a short period of time with no warning. Gah, so much work... but I've got this chapter up now, so yay!**

**OH MY FUDGING GOSH 14 REVIEWS FOR CHAPTER ONE! As you can tell, I am very happy. HUGE THANKS to ultima-owner (who has been the first to review this story, so congratulations! And has also stuck with me through every chapter of Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Could-Speak-to-Pokemon), Olaf74, youwillnotstopme, King Scorpious, Nightwing 509, Guest, SilverHeart1171, KitsuneTurner, Prototron MJ Tornada, Extended Experience, Seas and Shadows, ZoeyMarieSnape, Orangefur, and Mordu for reviewing!  
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**To ZoeyMarieSnape: Actually, I didn't think of that. Sounds like that new series by Brandon Mull, Spirit Animals. But no, I'll be doing something different.**

**Disclaimer: Nope, nope, and nope. I wish I owned them, but nope. JK Rowling and... um... who created Pokemon? I just realized I don't actually know... oh well, I'll just say Nintendo.**

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><p>"So, you're great plan is… what exactly?"<p>

Cub grinned and held up a pokeball. Hermione blinked, looked at it for a moment, and then groaned in annoyance.

"Seriously? I can't believe I didn't think of that! It's so simple! Hidden in plain sight, and they're not pets, so the Headmaster can't forbid them… I feel like an idiot now," she said as Neville took one look at the pokeball and started laughing.

"Harry, that's brilliant! The only problem is that he's going to ask what they are, you know," Neville chuckled. "So unless you decide to tell him that they're really pokemon, how are you going to convince the Headmaster that they're not actually pets without explaining, well, all this?" he gestured to Harry's room, where the three friends were relaxing. The Pride was lounging in various locations on different pieces of furniture, ranging from Devil napping on the carpet to Glider hanging from the ceiling light.

Cub pondered this for a moment, then shrugged. "Eh, I figured I'd just tell him that I've been living in a land far away from England that's warded to most people can't get to it. And that the figurines were based off creatures from this land, my team. I just didn't tell them that before because the people I was living with didn't want me to tell them about that country, but over the summer I negotiated so that I could bring my team and tell the wizards a little bit. Think that'll fly with him?"

Hermione frowned slightly. "I dunno, Harry. It sounds a little suspicious to me, and what if he decides he wants to talk to the people you've been living with? Then you'll have to refuse, and he'll know that something's up."

I flicked an ear and lazily listened in on the conversation, then decided to add in my own two cents. "Why don't you just get Koga or Aya to talk it over with him? Even though you're now a legal adult, they still act as your semi-guardians. If you bring one of them he'll know you're not just lying about the whole thing. It would help if they mentioned that it's actually quite common for kids even younger than most Hogwarts students to carry around a team for protection, too. If they spin it right, they could make it sound like you're perfectly entitled to having the Pride here, especially if they call it part of the country's custom. And Dumbles is more likely to listen to a couple of adults than you. Plus, since Koga is now a member of the Elite Four and Aya is a gym leader, they are technically somewhat leaders of Kanto. Add in that they're both highly intelligent ninjas, and I think that would be a good way to trick Dumbles. Remember what they taught you, Cub- the best lies always have a core of truth."

Cub looked at me, then nodded in agreement. "Yeah… that's actually a pretty good idea. Why didn't I think of that?"

"Hey! 'That's actually a pretty good idea?' What do you mean? You make it sound like I don't have good ideas!" I huffed good-naturedly, cuffing the boy lightly with my paw. He ducked and laughed, reaching out and scratching behind my ear. I instantly started purring happily. Cub always knew exactly how to calm me down.

Devil snickered. "Need I remind you of the infamous Sunnyshore Power Outage? I seem to recall that one being your idea."

I bristled. "Hey! That was an accident, and besides, they got the grid back up within a couple hours. So there was no permanent damage."

Devil rolled his eyes. "Right, right. Whatever you say."

I huffed and turned my attention back to the three friends. Hermione and Neville looked confused, while Cub was laughing quietly at my expense.

"Harry, what did Thunder say?" Hermione asked.

Cub stopped laughing, but a few snickers still escaped every now and then. "Oh, he said that I should bring Koga and Aya to talk it over with Dumbles, see if they can spin to make it sound like I'm legally allowed to carry the Pride because it's a tradition of this country. Which is, technically, true."

Neville smirked. "Yes, technically. That's a pretty good idea, but do Koga and Aya have the time for it? I thought Koga joined the Elite Four, and Aya's a gym leader now. Which means that Koga would probably have to tell the other Elite Four about why he's going to literally disappear from the face of the earth for a few days, and Aya's going to have to close the gym, and… man, this is a lot more complicated than it sounds at first," he grumbled. Cub let out a bark of laughter.

"Don't worry about it, Aya won't mind getting away from the gym for a few days. And I think it would be a good idea to tell the Elite Four anyway, just in case the Old Coot or Voldysnorts somehow manages to find this planet."

Hermione nodded. "Yes, that makes sense. Also, since it seems inevitable that you and Voldemort will clash someday according to the prophecy, it would be a good idea for the leaders of this world to know, just in case."

Cub sat back and put his hands behind his head, staring up at the ceiling. "Right, then that's settled. Now we just gotta see if Koga and Aya will agree."

* * *

><p>"So, you're telling me that there is an entirely other planet out there populated by wizards, with no pokemon whatsoever?" Lance sat back and regarded Cub with a searching gaze, brow furrowed. His dragonite stood behind him, looking quite intimidating for such a usually kind-hearted pokemon.<p>

Cub nodded. "Uh-huh."

"And you're also saying that you are one of those wizards, but was brought here by Mewtwo six years ago. But now you're going to this 'Hogwarts' wizarding school, and you're having disagreements with the Headmaster regarding your pokemon team. So you want Koga and Aya, a member of the Elite Four and a gym leader, to go and talk it out. And, you're apparently the subject of a prophecy regarding one of the darkest wizards in their history, but everyone thinks that it's your twin brother instead."

"Yeah, that sounds about right."

Lance stared at Cub for a few seconds, then sighed and shook his head. "How do I know you're not lying?"

Cub tilted his head to the side and smirked, then held out his hand. "Because I can do this."

A small flame sprang into existence, hovering a few inches above his palm. The Elite Four Champion jumped in surprise, then leaned forward to inspect it curiously. "Is that real?" he asked, reaching out to touch it.

Cub hastily pulled his hand back. "Yeah, it's real, so you probably shouldn't touch it. I know the first few times I tried this I burned myself, which hurt like heck. And, in case that wasn't enough proof for you, watch this." Cub closed his hand, extinguishing the fire, then snapped his fingers. Instantly Will, who had been standing off the to the side, yelped in shock. Instead of his usual, um, interesting costume-outfit, he was dressed in a glittery pink princess's dress, complete with pink heels, a tiny waistline, and a tiara. The only part of his old outfit still there was the mask, and even his hair had changed. Now it was long, wavy, and had several fancy jewels woven into it, sparkling in the light.

There was a beat of silence, then Will shrieked and began to frantically tug at the dress as everyone else burst out laughing. Spike was practically convulsing on the floor, and if I had been human I would have been doing the same thing. As it was I almost passed out from lack of air.

Lance, the stern-looking Champion, was turning red in the face as he tried to hold it back, but he was fighting a losing battle as his chuckles escaped, then turned into full-blown peals of laughter. Even Lance's dragonite was sagging against the wall, holding his stomach and laughing like crazy.

"GAH! WHAT DID YOU DO, KID?!" Will yelled, still trying to remove the outfit. Every time he took out the tiara, it would snatch itself out of his hands and settle back onto his head. Every time he unwound a jewel from his hair, it vanished in a poof of smoke and reappeared back where it started. Even when he tried ripping chunks out of the dress it only repaired itself, and the shoes just stuck to his feet like glue.

Cub wiped a fake tear out of his eye. "Oh, nothing, just a simple transfiguration layered with magnetism, sticking, and self-repairing charms. It should wear off, um… within the month, I think. I've never actually tried something like this before, so I'm not entirely sure. Don't worry, though, it's not permanent. I think, anyway."

"...YOU THINK?!"

"Hey, relax! Even if I can't fix it I know people who can. Just hold still for a minute… there we go." Cub narrowed his eyes and twisted his hands in a complicated motion, making a show of it when a mere snap of his fingers could've done the job. A cloud of smoke enveloped the psychic user, and, when it cleared, he was back in his original outfit. Though, in my opinion, that wasn't much better.

A beaming smile lit up the face of the purple-haired Elite Four member. He patted himself, as if to check if it was real, then whooped joyfully. By now everyone was calming down, though every few moments a snicker would escape in the relative silence.

Cub sat back, a satisfied smile playing about his lips. "So, need anymore proof?"

Lance shook his head. "Eh, I don't think so. I think we're all pretty well convinced."

Nods came from around the room. Then…

Every single piece of furniture, the walls, the flooring, the ceiling, even the carpet suddenly and without warning turned bright pink.

A beat of silence.

"AARRRGH!"

"MY EYES!"

* * *

><p>Cub threw his arms out to the sides, grinned widely, and spun to face the delegation consisting of the Elite Four, Lance, and Aya. Neville and Hermione had returned a few days before, and were going to meet him at the train station. "Welcome to London!" he said. "Or, rather, a mostly-deserted strip of turf thirty or so miles north of it protected by anti-human charms and wards to rival Gringotts. My teachers helped me create it last year as a safe entry and exit point for passage between the worlds. Only people keyed into the wards can find it, much less get in. So just hold on a sec and let me add you guys' signatures, just so next time when you want to go back to the Pokemon World you don't get repelled and sent off to China or something. Or, depending on which ward you hit, transformed in a pink fluffy unicorn that dances on rainbows. Although, that one may have been accidentally nullified by the one that slingshots you to Ireland… hm. Anyway, I had the opportunity to get creative with these, so, yeah." He then proceeded to giggle slightly insanely.<p>

Some of the adults shared slightly worried looks. "Pink fluffy unicorn?" one of them muttered, brow furrowed.

Devil leaned over and whispered in my ear, "Maybe we shouldn't have let Cub have all those donuts this morning. I think the sugar's making him act weird."

I nodded slightly in agreement. "Yeah, me too. And, also, let's never let him design wards while high off caffeine and sugar again. Agreed?"

The answer was unanimous. "Agreed."

* * *

><p>The large entourage trooped up the stairs to Dumbleboor's office, passing the numerous talking portraits (who gossiped like crazy) and randomly singing suits of armor (ranging from Mozart's Fifth Symphony to a more modern-day pop song). Huh. Seems like somebody had a sense of humor, considering that it was several days before the term was actually supposed to start. I wondered which teacher had done that particular piece of spellwork.<p>

Through Professors Flitwick and McGonagall, we'd managed to get an appointment with Dumbles to discuss the Pride. Apparently he was quite eager to "meet young Harry's caretakers". Which, in manipulative-old-coot-speak, translates to "I want to subtly interrogate you and find out everything you possibly know." All in the name of the Greater Good, of course.

This time, the password was "Ice Mice," another wizarding candy. I snorted from inside the pokeball where the rest of the Pride and I were located. Honestly, he had no imagination. If somebody wanted to break into his office, all they'd have to do would be to list every single candy they could think of. Chances are they'd get something and boom, into the office.

Anyway, I was getting kind of bored as I watched from inside the small capsule. So, after a few minutes in which the group went up the staircase and exchanged pleasantries with the other professors in the office (all the while warding off all subtle questioning) I took a catnap, pun intended.

Now, while the inside of a pokeball may appear tiny from the outside, the way that the capsules actually work is that they use nanotechnology to safely break down the molecules of a pokemon and then compress them into a high-density essence to be housed inside a small sphere. It's actually much more complicated than that, but that's essentially the basics. So, to me, I appeared as a miniature version of myself inside a small metal room with large windows so I could see out.

However, the interesting stuff soon came up as the subject shifted to the actual explanation. Thanks to the psychic mind-shields woven by a combination of Will and his pokemon and Cub for everyone else who lacked mind shields, Dumbles was unable to use Occlumency to spy on their true thoughts. So he resorted to the old-fashioned way- asking lots and lots of questions.

"So you are telling me that this, 'Indigo Plateau' place is where young Harry's strange creatures originate? And that they are, in fact, living creatures and not spelled objects?"

Lance nodded. "Yes, but we instructed him to act as if they were figurines because we did not want to draw undue attention to him by introducing an entirely new species of creature to this world. We feared that they might get taken away and experimented on for research, or other things like that. However, since you have added a new rule this year, we thought it best to simply ask that Harry be allowed to keep the Pride."

Dumblebore leaned forward on his desk, eyes twinkling in an inquisitive way. A grandfatherly smile was on his face, but I could tell that underneath he was curious and calculating. "And why should I allow him to keep potentially dangerous creatures in the school? They would pose a threat to other students, seeing as they already hurt young Christopher last year."

"Actually, there were no serious injuries, merely minor ones, and they were provoked first," Cub interjected. "Also, as explained before, it is a tradition for a child to get their first pokemon at age ten. From that age, the pair then train and work together, almost like wizard and familiar. Except that the pokemon are much more intelligent, some just as much as humans. To have no contact whatsoever with one's pokemon for almost eight or nine months… it's torture."

I chuckled slightly at Cub's exaggeration. He made it sound like pokemon and their trainers became soulmates or something, when in truth, most trainers only really formed deep life-bonds with one or two of their closest pokemon, usually the ones they'd worked with as young children or when the pokemon were quite young. But hey, whatever got the Headmaster convinced.

The debate continued back and forth for a little while until finally, finally, the old man sighed, sat back, and gave his consent. It helped that most of the teachers were on our side as well. And really, Dumbles had no real reason to ban the Pride now, now that he knew of our true statues. And the best part was, after going through the memories of that conversation, we couldn't recall a single instance where we slipped any crucial information. So not only had we gotten his consent, but we'd completely pulled the wool over his eyes as well.

Ha! Take that, ya fleabitten old man!

* * *

><p>Later, the three teachers Cub respected and looked up to the most- Professors Flitwick, McGonagall, and Snape -met with us in a hidden clearing on the edge of centaur territory in the Forbidden Forest. Since they hadn't been at the meeting, they wanted to know how it went and also wanted to meet Cub's guardians as well as the rest of the Elite Four and visitors from the Pokemon World. After talking it over with the adults, it was agreed that Cub would tell them everything, the truth of everything. Including the pokemon world and Cub's true power. So, like the flamboyant wizard he was, he decided to have a little fun with them.<p>

When the three teachers walked into the clearing, two in their feline animagus forms while the other traipsed through the bushes, their jaws dropped and they stopped dead in their tracks.

Cub, in his ninetails form, lifted his head up from where he'd been dozing in the sun and flashed them a toothy grin. The rest of the other trainers were scattered around on the grass with their pokemon, relaxing in the warm afternoon light. In total, that meant that almost 40 pokemon in total were filling up the clearing, which must've been quite a sight for the poor wizards and witch.

The two animagi professors shifted back to their human forms and instantly dwarfed their colleague, gaping at the various pokemon. Lance's dragonite looked up from where it had been napping against a tree trunk, ears pricked in curiosity. The others turned to look as well, and within seconds every eye was turned towards the trio.

Then a swirling lavender portal appeared and Mewtwo stepped out, followed by Hermione holding Amethyst in her arms and Neville with Root lumbering along behind him. Cub had arranged for them to come as well, figuring that the professors might as well find out the two other trainers in the school while they were at it.

"So," Hermione said, looking around. "Are we late?"


	3. Lockhart the Loopy Lying Lunatic

**ACK! LATELATELATELATELATE! Okay, I am so sorry it took me so long to update! Even longer than usual! I can't believe it's been over a month! My only excuse, which I've been using a lot lately... I got busy. Really busy. I know, lame. And I was also watching anime. I finished Attack on Titan and am now trying to catch up on the manga (only on chapter 34, though).**

**HUGE THANKS to Krazyfanfiction1, charm13insomnia, Baby Fawn, Extended Experience, Ddragon21, Nightwing 509, Orangefur, ultima-owner, secret-sorrow, GreenDrkness, Wishfull-star, 623Dream, and Taranodongirl1 for reviewing! I can't believe I got 13 reviews for one chapter! YAY!**

**To Krazyfanfiction1: That's actually a good question... why not? But if that were true, then... MASS DESTRUCTION! I'd imagine it would be a very difficult technique to cover your entire body, though. That's a cool idea. Do you mind if I use it sometime? Imagine, Cub in ninetails form covered in fire... EPIC.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, you know the rest. By the way, is Doc Manager deleting the italics for everyone else too? Because it's really annoying to hav to go back and add all those in.**

* * *

><p>"So." Professor McGonagall rubbed her temples and pinned Cub with a stern gaze. "You're telling me that you are, in fact, the true Boy-Who-Lived, and that you spent the past six or seven years on another planet where these 'Pokemon' are common, you learned wandless magic from the portraits of Merlin and Morgana, you apparently have three animagus forms, two of which are a pokemon and a magical creature, and you are currently hunting down the Horcruxes to kill Voldemort. Also, Miss Granger and Mr. Longbottom are both trainers as well and have visited this, 'Pokemon World' that you are from. Is that correct?"<p>

Cub thought about for a moment. "Yeah, that's all the important bits."

Koga and Aya laughed. "Not to mention that he was practically raised by ninjas and Pokemon. No wonder he's so strange."

"Hey! I am not strange- wait… even by wizard standards I guess I am…" Cub protested, then realized that it was true. "Huh. Maybe that's why I'll never understand how wizards think…"

"Or it could just be because you're crazy," I suggested with a smirk.

"I'm not-!"

"Three words, Cub. Designing wards. Coffee," Devil reminded him.

Cub thought about this for a second. "Yeah, well, everybody's crazy when they're hyped up on caffeine!"

Spike opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by Professor Snape. "While I'm sure your conversation is extremely important," he drawled, "would you mind enlightening those of us who cannot, unlike you, understand pokemon?"

"Actually, they were just talking about how Cub is crazy," Spike put in. Lance's head snapped around and he gaped at the tall pokemon, as did those of the Elite Four minus Koga and the three teachers.

"Your lucario can talk?!" the Champion said, surprise evident in his voice. "I've never heard of that before."

Cub cocked his head to the side in a bird-like motion. "Really? I thought you knew. Koga never mentioned it?"

Several of the trainers turned to Koga, who laughed sheepishly. "Ah, well, it never really came up…"

Spike grinned. "Then allow me to explain. Have any of you heard of Sir Aaron?"

There were several blank looks, but Lance looked thoughtful. "The name sounds familiar, but I can't remember where I heard it…"

"Well, to put it simply, he was a knight who could see Aura and lived several hundred years ago. He had a lucario partner that he trained in seeing and using Aura as well, and that lucario could speak the human language. Our theory is that either I've got some sort of genetic mutation or I'm a descendant of that lucario," Spike informed them. The other trainers nodded.

"Oh, that makes sense. Does that mean you can use Aura too?"

Spike held up his paw and wiggled it from side to side. "Sort of, to a point. I can use Aura Sphere and use it to sense things with my eyes closed, but only in my immediate vicinity and it's very hard. I'm not very good at it," he replied sheepishly.

Lance was about to reply, but Professor Flitwick cut in first.

"Excuse me, but what is this 'Aura' you're talking about?" he asked curiously. "It doesn't sound remotely familiar to me."

Will, the psychic user, immediately answered and I lost interest as the conversation got technically about Aura, then psychic pokemon, then how exactly their abilities worked. Instead I decided to wander over to where Amethyst and Root were cautiously eyeing the slightly intimidating Gym Leader and Elite Fours' pokemon.

"Hey, they're not going to bite your heads off, y'know," I told the younger pokemon jokingly. "I mean, I don't really know most of them, but Koga and Aya's partners at least are pretty friendly."

Amethyst glanced at the various poison-types. "Really?" she meowed dubiously. "They don't look all that friendly to me."

Root nodded in agreement. I looked over at the two ninja's teams. Koga had five, which consisted of Ariados, Venomoth, Grimer, Forretress, and Crobat. Aya's team was made up of Venonat, who still hadn't evolved for some reason (I suspected it was because he didn't want to), Ekans, (whom Flare liked to mess with- he thought it was fun to annoy the younger pokemon), and Croagunk. Even though none of them had evolved, they were still quite powerful. After all, Aya was a gym leader now.

In total, that made eight different poison-types lounging on the grass. Though I could see how they might appear intimidating, years of living with them had long since stripped any fear whatsoever away. It was hard to be intimidated by pokemon you'd watched get covered in whipped cream and sprinkles as a prank before, after all. That was funny, even though they'd been extremely pissed off afterwards.

"Even though they may not look friendly," I replied, "they're pretty nice. And once I tell you about Operation Whipped Cream, you will never be intimidated by them again. I sure wasn't."

"Operation Whipped Cream? Oh dear Arceus no," Ekans hissed as he slithered over. "Are you trying to destroy our reputations?"

"Hey, at least he's not talking about the clown outfits," Flare replied. Ariados scuttled over, followed by the rest of the ninja's teams.

"The clown outfits? Man, that was awful. Those challengers were laughing so hard they almost couldn't battle," he said. "I don't even know how Cub did it."

"Magic, of course," Glider informed him. "You're lucky those only lasted for a few hours. Now Cub's working on a variation that'll stick around for up to three days."

This statement took a moment to sink in, and when it did, all of us paled. "Three _days?_ Oh,_ c***._"

* * *

><p>Several hours later we were walking down Diagon Alley, heading towards Flourish and Blotts to see if they had some book Cub wanted on animagus transformations for Hermione and Neville. When we got there, however, there was a huge crowd in front of the store.<p>

"What's going on?" Neville asked as the trio stopped at the edge of the crowd. Then they caught sight of the banners and posters hung both inside and outside the bookshop, depicting a blond man with unnaturally white teeth that flashed a cheesy smile across the shoppers. I flattened my ears and recoiled at the bright lights and loud noise. There seemed to be some sort of book signing that was going on.

"Oh, I forgot! Gilderoy Lockhart is signing books today!" Hermione exclaimed. "He's the one who wrote most of the books on our list this year. He's supposed to be a really powerful wizard."

"Gilderoy Lockhart… oh, the guy who did Voyages with Vampires and those other ones?" Cub asked as the three stood at the edge of the crowd. "That one? I'm pretty sure he's a fake."

Hermione whirled around so fast she got whiplash_. "What?"_

"Wouldn't surprise me," Neville muttered. "From what I've read, he's way to good to be true."

"He's a fake. At least, I think he is," Cub repeated. "Come on, think about it. How could one guy have done all that and come off without a scratch? I mean, just look at him! Not a single scar!" he gestured to the numerous posters. "And what's more, those spells he used? They don't exist. If they did, half of society's magical creature problems would be solved. Plus, I was bored and I tried them, and zilch. Zip. Nada. And my final piece of evidence- timelines. If you look at the dates, it says he was fighting vampires and taming werewolves on opposite sides of the country at the same time. So unless he can be in two places at once, I don't think so," Cub stated.

His two friends thought this over for a second.

"Ah, that makes sense. It did seem a bit fishy to me," Hermione nodded.

"Told you he was too good to be true," Neville told her smugly. "Didn't you have a hero-worship crush on him?"

The brown-haired girl turned pink. The two boys laughed.

"Seriously?" Cub snickered, bent over double. "On that idiot?"

She huffed indignantly. "I did not have a hero-worship crush! I simply admired him, that was all."

"Riiiiight," Cub drawled. "Just admired him. Not anymore, I hope?"

"Of course not! Even if I did admire him, it was a bit dubious that he could do all these things. Now I know he's just a fraud," Hermione sniffed haughtily.

Just then, there was a commotion inside the shop. I jumped on top of Cub's head, since the Pride was in our miniature forms thanks to a shrinking spell, and craned my neck to see. It looked like there was some sort of scuffle going on with a red-headed man and a pale blond-haired man, who I realized were Ron Weasley's father and Draco Malfoy's father. It was easy to tell which was which. The hair was a dead giveaway. Then I spotted another familiar mop of hair in the crowd over by Ron and growled, hackles rising. It was Christopher Potter and his parents, come to shop for their school books.

"Cub! The Weasleys, Malfoys, and Potters are all here!" I told him, hopping back down to his shoulder. He tensed.

"You're kidding me."

"Nope, I'd know the scent of Malfoy's hair gel any day, I'm afraid," Devil barked. "It smells like chemicals. Ugh, how much does he put in there?"

"Judging by how flat and slicked back it is every day? A lot," Draca replied as she poked her head out. "It always looks like he just dunked it in water or something."

Cub was about to reply, but Neville cut him off.

"Harry?" Neville asked, peering at his friend. "Are you okay? You look kind of tense. And you've just been standing there for the past thirty seconds."

"What?" Cub said distractedly, before realized that he had, indeed, been standing in the same spot for an unusual amount of time. "Oh, I'm fine. Thunder just told me that the Weasleys, Malfoys, and Potters are all in there at once."

Two pairs of eyes widened. "Really? Well, that's certainly not going to end peacefully. Should we just come back later?"

"Nah, it's okay. We came all this way, we might as well just go in," Cub sighed. Then he squared his shoulders and slipped into the crowd, quickly followed by his friends.

A few minutes later, he was regretting that decision as Lockhart somehow managed to pull him up in front of the cameras with Chris, the three of them squished into one photo that he claimed would make the front page.

"Now, Harry!" he said, grinning widely. "How have you been? I heard you were missing for almost ten years! It must have been nice to come home, eh? A shame I wasn't there when you vanished, I'm sure I could have tracked you down in a heartbeat. And Christopher, the Boy-Who-Lived! You two are just marvelous, marvelous. Smile, this'll be good- Lockhart and the Potter Twins, front page of the Daily Prophet!"

The cameras flashed as Cub promptly grabbed the blond's thumb and twisted it backwards, causing Lockhart to release him with a pained cry.

"Actually, we are _not_ the Potter Twins," he informed the man through gritted teeth. "I am legally emancipated and have changed my name to Pride. Harry Pride. Christopher is no longer my brother, and the Potters are no longer my family. So I would appreciate it if you would address me by my real name."

"What? Really? But why? As the brother of the great Boy-Who-Lived, you could be famous! Not as famous as me, of course, but still! Why did you change your name?" Lockhart exclaimed loudly. Cub frowned.

"Thanks a lot, now the entire store knows," he hissed. "And why I changed my name is private. I don't want fame anyway. Being famous is overrated."

The faker gasped dramatically. "What? You don't want fame? But everybody wants to be famous! Like me!"

By now, reporters and onlookers were following the conversation like hawks, eager for any information they could get on Christopher Potter's mysterious twin brother.

Cub looked Lockhart up and down. He was not impressed. "Why would I want to be like you?"

Lockhart gasped again, but before he could reply James Potter strode up and tugged Christopher away.

"That's enough," he said in a stern tone. "This is a family matter, and you have no business here. We can settle this in private, without your interference."

The brightly-dressed wizard sputtered indignantly as if the very idea he wasn't needed was offensive. He was ignored, and James Potter turned to Cub.

"Now, what's this about changing your name?" he demanded. "You are a Potter! By changing your name, you are effectively seceding from the family!"

Cub snorted. "And? I knew what I was doing, and I did it anyway. I never considered you my family anyway, so changing my name just made it official."

The adult bristled. "Why, you ungrateful little-!"

"Ungrateful? For what? What did you ever do for me?" Cub sneered. "Face it. I'm not your son, and you're not my father. See you at school, _Professor_." And with that, he turned and pushed into the crowd, leaving Professor Potter gaping at his retreating back.

* * *

><p>"Eh, sorry I didn't get those books, guys," Cub apologized sheepishly. Hermione and Neville shook their heads reassuringly.<p>

"Don't worry, it's okay. I'm sure the Hogwarts library has some books," Hermione said encouragingly. Neville nodded.

"Yeah, the school library is huge. It's bound to have something."

"Still, I do feel kind of guilty for saying I was gonna get stuff and then not getting it. But I can always teach you guys the first step without a book," Cub told them. The three friends were sitting in Cub's room at the Leaky Cauldron, where they and all the otherworldly visitors were staying. "It's quite simple in theory, but difficult to put into practice. But I have faith you guys can do it. I could," he grinned.

"Yeah, but you're, like, some sort of genius," Neville pointed out.

"Nah, I just had really good teachers," Cub replied humbly. "Anyway, the first step is meditating to find your form. You've both heard of meditation right?"

Both kids nodded their heads.

"Alright, good. So, first you clear your mind…"

I let the sounds of the meditation lesson fade into the background as I focused on stalking Flare, who had somehow or another slithered up to the rafters and was wrapped around one, tail dangling towards the ground. Its purple tip was just hanging there, swinging slightly, so tempting… and I was still a predator, a hunter.

_Closer… closer…_

"HEY!"

_Gotcha!_


	4. Back to School

**HUGE THANKS to Taranodongirl1, LizzieLyn, Wishfull-star, Krazyfanfiction1, Nightwing509, Olaf74, Extended Experience, ultima-owner, GreenDrkness, DragonClaw827, Omega VI, Orangefur, Cowmaiden, GinnyPotterXXX, and masterbond9 for reviewing!**

**To LizzieLyn: Sure! Here they are-**

**Thunder- luxray  
>Devil- houndoom<br>Spike- lucario  
>Draca- dragonair<br>Flare- arbok  
>Glider- gliscor<strong>

**Sorry the chapters are so far apart; my updating schedule seems to have dissolved...**

**To Krazyfanfiction1: I can't promise I'll fit it in, but I'll try to fulfill your expectations if I do!**

**To Omega VI: All weak to Ice or Ground? Shoot, I hadn't realized that! Thanks for pointing it out! As for the basilisk, I am leaning more towards the seviper rather than the gyarados. But perhaps a basilisk-seviper crossbreed, so it retains the death/petrification eyes. I wonder, should I make Cub/Harry catch it? And yes, Damien will come into play later, but not in place of Colin.**

**To Cowmaiden: Sorry, but Draca will not evolve. Even if she could, she won't, because she's content being a dragonair. Plus, dragonair can control the weather, and dragonite can't. Sorry if I disappointed you.**

**Wow, long author's note. Enjoy the slightly longer chapter! Just saying, though, some passages were taken directly from the book and were not written by me. In case anything seems familiar, but not in my writing style.**

**Edit 1-21-15: Nayeri, that misprint with the Ravens and Eagles has been fixed. Thanks for pointing it out!**

**Edit 9-16-15: Bast Misao, the other typo with the tree and the car has also been fixed. Sheesh, can't believe I missed that... gah, I can be an idiot. Thanks for pointing it out!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter or Pokemon, only the Pride.**

* * *

><p>"You're kidding me- so that rumor about Potter and Weasley crashing a flying car into the Whomping Willow was true?"<p>

"Yeah, it was. Crazy, eh?"

"Wait, which Potter and which Weasley?"

"Isn't there only one Potter now, though? Christopher, the Boy Who Lived."

"Huh? What happened to his twin, then? Harry, I think it was. The kid with the weird pets and the crazy sword skills."

"I heard he changed his name to Pride, and cut all ties with the Potters. My cousin said so, and she was there when Lockhart announced it in that bookstore."

"Really? So that rumor was real too? Why?"

"I dunno. Beats me, though it was pretty obvious that he wasn't getting along with the rest of his family last year. Remember the duel?"

"Oh, who could forget that! It was epic, the way he just twisted that sword- and then Potter's- the Boy Who Lived, not the other one -wand just went flying out of his hand!"

"I know, right? And he used all those fancy kung fu thingy moves, too."

"Kung fu? What's that?"

"It's a type of muggle fighting."

"Ohhh… cool. Why'd he use muggle fighting instead of magic, though? So much easier."

"Beats me. Maybe he didn't know as many spells or something?"

"Uh, _huh,_ right. He's a _Ravenclaw,_ they're all ridiculous bookworms. Of course he knows a lot of spells!"

I laughed slightly and turned my attention away from the group of friends talking about Cub. Then I growled at Devil as he stole some bacon that I was gonna eat, watching me smugly as he gulped it down with a satisfied smirk.

"Hey, play nice, guys," Cub said with a chuckle as he gave Spike a slice of toast with strawberry jam and butter. "Don't make too much trouble, 'kay?"

"Oh, we'll be fine," Draca said from here she was nibbling at a dish of eggs and sausages. I leaned over and grabbed one of the meats, savoring the delicious taste.

Then, I suddenly whipped my head to the side at a loud splash from the Gryffindor table. Judging by the milk-covered mess of grey feathers that Ron Weasley was picking up out of somebody's milk jug, an owl had crash-landed into their breakfast. And from the youngest male Weasley's cry of, "Errol!" I gathered the owl was his. then I saw the petrified look of complete and utter terror on his face. What was he so freaked out about?

Following his gaze, I saw that he was staring at a damp red envelope held in Errol's beak. On first glance it looked fairly ordinary, but I'd learned pretty quickly that appearances were often deceiving in the Wizarding World. The old coot himself was a prime example. all outward appearances suggested that he was just an eccentric and probably senile old man, but underneath he was still one of the most powerful and manipulative wizards out there. I wasn't sure that even Cub could beat him in a straight fight. Not yet, anyway.

The envelope, though, had begun, at this point, to smoke at the corners. My ears pricked up in interest. Well, this was new.

"Hey, what do you think that red envelope is going to do? The kid looks terrified," I murmured to Glider. He paused and looked up from his strawberry.

"Mm? I dunno. Maybe explode or something," he shrugged.

Next thing I knew, it almost seemed as if it _had_ exploded- though, from the ringing in my ears, I think that what really happened actually hurt worse. An unexpected roar of sound filled the Great Hall, shaking dust from the ceiling.

"_-STEALING THE CAR, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY'D EXPELLED YOU, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT WAS GONE-_"

Mrs. Weasley's yells, a hundred times louder than usual, made the plates and spoons rattle on the table, and echoed deafeningly off the stone walls. People throughout the hall were swivling around to see who had received it- a "Howler", as I heard one student way with a note of sympathy in their tone -and Ron sank so low in his chair that only his crimson forehead could be seen. All six of the Pride had recoiled, our sensitive ears hurt by the sound. I had clamped my paws over my ears in a fruitless attempt to block it out, and Devil was whining pitifully. Spike was no better, but luckily Cub cast some sort of spell that helped muffle the yells slightly.

"_-LETTER FROM DUMBLEDORE LAST NIGHT, I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER WOULD DIE OF SHAME, WE DIDN'T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS, YOU AND CHRIS COULD BOTH HAVE DIED-_"

Next to Ron, it seemed like Chris was trying very hard to look as though he couldn't hear the woman's voice. It was obvious he was fighting a losing battle. His parents up at the staff table looked embarrassed, too.

"_-ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED- YOUR FATHER'S FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT AND IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT BACK HOME._"

A ringing silence fell. The Howler, which had dropped from Ron's hand, burst into flames and curled into ashes. Chris and Ron sat stunned, as if a tidal wave had just passed over them. A few people laughed and, gradually, a babble of talk broke out again.

Cub blinked as he discreetly waved his wand and canceled the muffling spell. "Well… I can't deny that was entertaining," he said with a slight smirk.

* * *

><p>"You're kidding me," Cub said flatly. "You have <em>got<em> to be _kidding_ me."

"Actually, I think he might really be serious," Flare said with a stunned expression on his face. "He's not joking."

I looked up and yawned, having just woken up from a quick nap. "Who's serious?" I asked curiously.

"Lockhart," Cub replied. "Look at this quiz he gave us!"

I hopped down from the young wizard's shoulder and onto his desk. Drawing upon my limited reading skills, I read the first three questions.

_1. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color?_

_2. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition?_

_3. What, in your opinion, is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement to date?_

The questions continued in this vein for three whole sides of paper, right down to:

_54. When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday, and what would his ideal gift be?_

"Wow," I said at last. "Self-centered much?"

"Yeah, I know," Cub agreed. "How the heck did he get hired, anyway? I thought the former Marauders were alternating on the Defense position."

"Maybe Dumbles really _is_ going senile," Spike suggested. "Or he's got some sort of ulterior motive, which is way more likely."

"Mm hm," Cub hummed slightly in agreement. "I should ask Prince and Moony later. Full moon's this Sunday, right?"

"Think so," Flare affirmed. "Might want to double-check just in case, though."

Cub nodded, then raised his hand. "Professor? Excuse me, Professor Lockhart?"

The blond man looked over and grinned, flashing his unnaturally perfect white teeth. "Oh, Harry!" he said loudly as he strutted over. "Harry, Harry, Harry. How can I help you?"

Cub pasted on an innocent but curious smile. "Well, actually, I was just wondering… what exactly does this test have to do with Defense Against the Dark Arts? To me, it just looks like fifty-four questions all about you. No offense, but I fail to see how that's actually relevant to this class."

Lockhart's smile faltered slightly as the class muttered and several students nodded in agreement. "Well…" he said, trying to figure out an answer, "this quiz is meant to test how well you all payed attention when you read my books! Yes, yes, that's it- it's to test how much you payed attention!"

Cub raised an eyebrow. "But what if we haven't read the books yet?" he pointed out. "I, for one, was not aware that they were summer reading."

The adult wizard had a stricken expression, as if the very _idea_ that some people hadn't read his books as soon as they bought them was unheard of. "Not read my books?" he sputtered incredulously. "Why on Earth _wouldn't_ you have read my books?"

If I was human, I would have facepalmed.

* * *

><p>"Erk. Mandrakes," Devil muttered as we relaxed in the grass outside the greenhouses. The Pride had decided to stay outside for Cub's Herbology lesson, seeing as it involved very loud screaming not unlike a loudred's. I would prefer to keep my ears intact, thankyouverymuch.<p>

Before we came out, though, Cub had been kind enough to restore us to our full sizes. So I stretched out each paw and reveled in the feeling of being larger than the owls again, flicking my tail from side to side aimlessly. The Whomping Willow creaked in the distance, and I stifled a purr of amusement at the sight of several of its branches in large slings. It gave the tree a rather… _different_ appearance, let's say.

"Aaah… I'm bored…" Spike moaned as he flopped down on the grass. "There's nothing to do…"

"Oh, stop whining," Draca said. "It's only another hour."

"But that's _forever_!" the lucario protested. "I'll die of boredom before then!"

I rolled my eyes. "Spike, stop being so dramatic," I told him. "Find something to entertain yourself with. Or take a nap, or something. Just don't whine."

He groaned dramatically. We ignored him. Then a window blew out, glass flying in a glittering rain. Six forms turned as one towards the castle, and my jaw dropped as little flying… _things_ burst out of what I thought was the Defense room.

_What in the name of Arceus is going ON in there?!_

Several of the little blue flying things buzzed over to us, and I swiped a paw at them as one tried to yank my tail. "What _are_ these things?" I growled as I leapt and trapped one between my jaws. It struggled and tried to free itself at first, but a growl and a tightening of my jaw persuaded it to lie limp.

"How should I know? Looks like some sort of pixie, from what I remember of Cub's textbooks," Flare hissed as his hood flared out and he swayed from side to side menacingly.

Spike's eyes narrowed as he used Psychic to immobilize the other two. "Whatever they are, they came from the Defense classroom," he said. "So, let's be polite and return them there."

"Good idea," Draca agreed. We walked up to the castle, and as we drew nearer to the broken window the sounds of chaos could be heard loud and clear. Upon peeking in, my eyes grew wider than dinner plates.

The situation was, for lack of a better word, pandemonium. Some poor kid was hanging from the chandelier, Lockhart had just dived under his desk in fear, and narrowly avoided getting squished as the chandelier fell a second later. The blue pixie-things were wreaking havoc; spraying the class (which I noted was Hermione, Neville, and Chris's) with ink, shredding books and papers, tearing pictures off the walls, overturning the trash can, and grabbing bags and books to throw them out the smashed window. It seemed like half the class was sheltering under the desks as chaos reigned. I spat out the pixie I was carrying and it zipped off to rejoin its brethren.

"Oh dear Arceus, can't the man to _anything_?" I growled before stepping forward and unleashing a massive _roar _that stopped every creature dead in their tracks. Once they were stationary Spike quickly grabbed them all with Psychic and shoved them all into the overturned cage. Silence fell.

Then the bell rang and everybody stampeded for the exits, but not before Hermione and Neville looked back and gave us nods of gratitude. I dipped my head in acknowledgement. Ugh, Lockhart really was useless.

"Some teacher," Glider muttered as he surveyed the destruction. "Man, he's even worse than I thought."

Speaking of which, the man in question had hesitantly crawled out from under the desk, and was now looking over the scene of devastation with a kind of shell-shocked silence. "Oh, dear," he whimpered quietly.

* * *

><p>"Hm? Hey, look over there. It looks like the Lions and the Snakes are having another fight," I noted as Cub and the Pride jogged around the perimeter of the lake. He looked over and, true to my word, the two groups of red and green were indeed having an argument.<p>

"Huh, I wonder what they're arguing about this time," he mused. Then he shrugged and changed course, heading towards the opposing sides. "Eh, let's go check it out, I'm kind of curious."

As we jogged over, I began to hear bits and pieces of their argument.

"But I booked the field!" said Wood, the Gryffindor team captain. He was positively spitting with rage. "I booked it!"

"Ah," said Flint, the Slytherin team captain. "But I've got a specially signed note here from Professor Snape. '_I, Professor S. Snape, give the Slytherin team permission to practice today on the Quidditch field owing to the need to train their new Seeker.'_"

"Oh, you've got a new Seeker? Who?" Cub asked, walking up silently behind the two captains. Both of them jumped and spun around, having not heard him approach at all.

"Ah! Where did you come from, Po- Pride?" Wood yelped, then corrected himself.

Cub blinked innocently. "I was doing laps around the lake," he said. "Then I saw that there seemed to be something going on over here, so I came to check it out. Who's the new Slytherin seeker?"

From behind the six massive green-robed players came a smaller, blond boy we knew as Draco Malfoy. He smirked arrogantly, but paled when he saw the Pride. Since we were in our true sizes, it must've been even more intimidating. I gave him a fanged grin, and saw him gulp satisfyingly.

"Oh, hello Draco," Cub said cordially. "I take it you're the new Seeker? Cool. Just hope you have the skills to back it up, and didn't just buy your way onto the team with those new brooms I see you all have." He said this all with a bland smile on his face, pleasant tone never wavering.

The smaller boy took a small step back as his eyes narrowed and he gritted his teeth. "What are you insinuating, filthy _Mudblood_?" he spat venomously.

Cub tilted his head to the side as the Gryffindor team shifted and muttered angrily. They may not have liked him for what he did to Chris, their Seeker, but if it was him or the Slytherins they'd back him any day.

"A Mudblood, am I?" he said calmly, still smiling. But his eyes were cold now, hard chips of emerald green. "I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about. I have seen my own blood plenty of times, and it certainly isn't muddy. Well, not unless it drips on the ground, of course," he added. "But, well, that doesn't really count now, does it." Everyone seemed to inch away from him slightly. "If anything, it should be _your_ blood being insulted. After all, so-called 'Pureblood' families inbreed to 'keep their blood pure', do they not? Why, I wouldn't be surprised if your mother was actually your father's distant cousin."

Gasps. All the while, he kept on smiling. Cold, and sinister. But then, like a switch being flipped, suddenly he relaxed and looked away. "Ahh, better go finish my morning run," he said cheerfully. "You Lions and Snakes continue. The Eagles and Badgers have better things to do."

Then he jogged back towards the lake, the rest of us running, slithering, or flying alongside him. And the two Houses of Gold and Silver were left staring after us, utterly confused.

"Eh, do you think that maybe you were overdoing it a bit by mentioning his parents like that?" Glider asked as we continued jogging along the shore. Cub shrugged.

"Maybe," he admitted. "But I think he still needed to hear it. It's true, after all- just look at a Pureblood family tree. They're all related to each other in some way, and that's why a lot of them come out a little… unbalanced, let's say. Bellatrix Lestrange, for one. Most of the Black family, for another. And Malfoy needs to learn to be more cunning, and less condescendingly holier-than-thou-like."

"That's true," Glider conceded. "Still, it seemed a bit harsh to me."

"Perhaps," Cub acknowledged. "But what's done is done, and there's no going back. Next time, though," he smirked. "It'll be the Lions I rip into. They're far too arrogant and close-minded."

Spike laughed. "I look forward to seeing them being taken down a notch," he said gleefully.


	5. The First Attack

**Okay, the first I'd like to do is apologize to everyone who was waiting for me to update... and I never did. My reason is because I went on vacation where there was no internet connection, so even though I had this chapter all written out I couldn't post it. Sorry! So, as an apology, here's the longest chapter so far of the story. And a short omake at the bottom. Enjoy!**

**HUGE THANKS to Krazyfanfiction1, secret-sorrow, Seas and Shadows, Nightwing 509, AnnElfwind, Wishfull-star, ultima-owner, DragonClaw827, Taranodongirl1, Orangefur, theaweasomeyvetel, Guest, codybob, and Guest for reviewing!**

**O_O 14 REVIEWS! I am overwhelmed with happiness. :D**

**To Seas and Shadows: Congratulations! Happy late birthday!**

**To Guest (the first one): A Harry torture scene? I don't know, I can't honestly see him getting captured by anybody. Especially since I not only overpowered him with wandless magic, ninja skills, and three animagus forms (one of which can fire-warp). Also, the Pride wouldn't let anybody touch him. Besides, I've never written a torture scene before, so it may not be very good. Sorry!**

**Disclaimer: The only thing I own is the Pride. And the plot.**

* * *

><p>It was now Halloween. Cub had made friends with a rather… <em>unique<em> Ravenclaw first year named Luna Lovegood. Unfortunately, due to her somewhat eccentric qualities, she'd been given the nickname "Loony Lovegood" by a few other girls. Cub had first met her as she was searching the library for her quills, which had apparently been hidden atop one of the shelves. I liked her. She was smarter than a lot of people gave her credit for, and much more perceptive, too.

After Cub befriended her, the girls bullying her appeared in the Great Hall the next morning wearing clown costumes. Which came complete with rainbow afro wigs, big red noses, and oversized shoes. A bit of spellwork worked into the outfits ensured that the costumes would be visible to everyone except the wearers. So the moment they walked in, everyone burst into laughter as the girls looked around in confusion. Cub was openly snickering, while Luna hid a small smile behind her hand.

Hermione and Neville later asked Cub if he had been the one responsible. He just smirked secretively, which was all the answer they needed.

"-arry? Harry?"

I snapped back to the present as Luna poked Cub in the shoulder. He'd been zoning out all day, and now it looked almost as if he was about to fall asleep in his pudding. I blamed the all-nighter we'd pulled narrowing down the locations of Voldysnort's horcruxes. But on the plus side, we were now fairly sure that we knew where most of them were.

Cub yawned widely. "Mm, yeah?"

Luna eyed him with concern. "Are you okay? Perhaps it's the blibbering humdingers. They _are_ known for causing unexplained drowsiness in their victims."

Cub laughed a bit and shook his head. "Relax, I'm fine." He yawned widely. "Sorry. Stayed up too late last night. Don't worry about-"

He paused suddenly, brow furrowed. Flare hissed and looked up at the ceiling. I felt a chill run down my spine, and my fur bristled. The rest of us pokémon were similarly agitated, drawing the attention of the people around us.

Cub straightened up, dinner forgotten. He tilted his head slowly from one side to the other, like an owl triangulating a sound. My ears twitched, and my paws tingled as I looked around. I could feel that something was off, but I didn't know what or why. Flare in particular seemed especially affected, tongue flickering in and out as he opened his hood wide.

"Flare, what's going on?" Devil asked. "You seem really… jittery."

"It's a snake," he replied. "A big snake. Bigger than me, bigger than Draca." He rose up and swayed slightly, like a cobra preparing to strike, and lifted his head to the ceiling. "I can sense it. Up there. Over a hundred feet long, and old. Very old. Feels almost like a seviper, but… not."

Spike narrowed his eyes. "Seviper?" he repeated. "Are you sure?"

"As sure as I can get without seeing it," Flare replied.

Cub glanced down at us. "Flare. How do you know? Is it your heat sense?"

The arbok nodded. "Yes. And- it's moving! It's saying something, but I can't tell what…"

Cub frowned, then stood. He looked up again, then stepped away from the bench. "I'm going to go check it out. You guys coming?"

I looked from my food, to Cub, to my food, and to Cub. With a sigh, I turned away and trotted over. "Oh, fine."

He took our pokeballs and recalled us, so my perspective changed from that of normal sight to a view from inside the pokeball. The young ninja-in-training quietly eased into the shadows, and then cast a wandless Notice-Me-Not charm. From there it was easy to sneak out, and once we were in the entrance hall we could all hear a strange hissing sound. For Cub and Flare, though, those hisses translated into words.

"Cub. What's it saying?" I asked him.

His face paled. "_I smell blood_," he repeated in a hushed whisper. Then his eyes widened, and without warning he suddenly turned to sprint up the marble staircase. He passed the first floor and continued up to the second, taking the stairs three at a time. Then he dashed through the entirety of that floor, presumably following the hissing sound until we came to one last, long deserted passage.

I blinked in confusion. "What was that-"

_Oh._

Two sentences, written in a glistening red liquid that looked like blood but thankfully smelled like paint and magic. A large puddle of water covered the stone floor, reflecting crimson words in the torchlight.

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.

"Ooh, that _can't_ be good," Glider muttered. Cub walked over. As he drew nearer, a shape became visible under the ominous message. Once I realized what it was, I hissed, and the fur along my spine spiked up.

Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat, was hanging by her tail from the torch bracket. She was stiff as a board, eyes wide and unseeing as she stared into nothing. But she wasn't dead. Somehow, I _knew_ she wasn't dead.

"Oh, d***," Cub said "D***. We gotta get out of here."

He turned to leave, and I understood his logic. Any minute now the students would be coming back from the feast, which had just ended, and every single one of them would come through this passage. If we were seen here, along, suspicion would instantly fall on Cub. And Dumblesnore didn't need another excuse to go after him. The Potters, too, would pounce on the opportunity.

However, before we could leave, clattering footsteps approached the corridor and loud chatter could be heard. The next moment students were pouring in, and Cub was perched high in the rafters. He'd teleported using the same methods as an abra, so it was undetectable and not blocked by the wards. So all seven of us stood, hidden, and watched as the cat was discovered.

The crowd of students had stopped dead by now. Draco Malfoy pushed to the front, face flushed and grinning. Chris, followed by Ron, were at the front as well.

"Enemies of the Heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!" Malfoy cried with far too much glee than was appropriate.

Chris and Ron turned to glare at him.

"Hey! What makes you think this 'Heir' is targeting muggleborns, eh?" Chris demanded. "How do you know they're not-"

But before they could launch into an argument, Potter and Malfoy were both cut off by Filch's shout. He'd no doubt been attracted by all the yelling, and came shouldering his way through the crowd.

"What's going on here? What's going on?" he shouted. Then he saw Mrs. Norris and fell back, clutching his face in horror. "My cat! My cat! What's happened to Mrs. Norris?" he shrieked. I almost felt sorry for him. Poor man. Mrs. Norris was his constant companion, and if he had been a full wizard she'd be his familiar. To lose her would be a heavy blow.

Filch's popping eyes then fell on Cub's former brother and Draco.

"_You!_" he screeched. "_You!_ You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you! I'll-"

"_Argus!_"

Dumbles was just now arriving on the scene, followed by the rest of the teachers. In seconds he'd swept past the students and detached Mrs. Norris from the torch bracket. Then he looked up, staring straight at where we were crouched.

"Mr. Potter!" he called. "If you would be so kind as to come down?"

Every eye turned to Cub, who frowned. _Caught._ But instead of panicking, he simply sat down and swung his legs back and forth childishly. He also tilted his head to the side, blinking innocently. Many of the students gasped in shock and worry. Hermione and Neville looked surprised, but not particularly concerned. They'd seen him perched in plenty of high places over the summer. It was a habit that came with being trained by ninjas.

"Headmaster? Who are you talking to?" he asked. "There's no Mr. Potter here. Professor Potter's down there." He pointed to James, who looked angry. "And the Boy Who Lived is over there." He pointed to Chris, whose hands were balled into fists. "I don't know who you're talking to. Are you sure you're not going senile, old man?"

Luna, standing beside Hermione and Neville, hid a smirk behind her hand.

Dumples smiled his grandfatherly smiled and chuckled slightly. "I assure you, Mr. Potter, that while I may be old, I haven't quite gone senile yet. I know exactly who I'm talking to."

Cub made a show of looking around before turning his face back down. "I still don't see him," he said in mock confusion. "Just me and the spiders up here. Although," he added as he peered into a dark corner, "I think that might be some snake skin. _Long _gone, though. And boy was that a big one, judging by the width and size of the scales."

The old coot's eyes twinkled annoyingly. "Well, if you are the only person up there, then I must be talking to you, eh my boy?"

Cub's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly. "Oh, really?" he asked. "Sorry, I didn't realize. You kept saying Potter, so I thought you were talking to someone else."

By now everyone was watching the play between Cub and Dumblebore like a tennis match. I could see both curiosity on the first years, who hadn't been present to experience Cub's authority problems before, and a slight eagerness on the older years as they waited to see how this would turn out. I think a few of them were hoping for another duel.

"Ah, but aren't you a Potter, Harry?" Dumbles asked in a fake-kindly voice. "You are young Chris's twin brother."

Cub snorted. "Sheesh, do we really look that much alike?" he complained. "Maybe I should just dye my hair or something. Besides, my name is _Pride._ Get it right."

The twinkle behind Dododore's glasses dimmed slightly. "So, you still insist on rejecting your true heritage?" he said faux-sadly. "That's a shame."

"Ha!" Cub let out a guffaw of laughter and rocked back, coming dangerously close to falling off backwards. "_Riiight,_ a real shame. They never cared about me, so why should I care about them? It's only now that I'm back and better than their precious _Boy-Who-Lived_ that they notice me." A trace of resentment and bitterness crept into his tone, but he quickly masked it with a fake smile. "Anyway, since there's nobody calling for a Mr. Pride, I'm comfortable staying right here. Quite a view, actually."

He bent his head and looked across the students. "Like, I can see that guy taking pictures of me. Hi!" Cub waved and grinned. "You got my good side, right?"

The photographer looked up from his camera and gave the young wizard a thumbs-up.

Before he could continue, though, Filch pointed a finger and bellowed up at him, "_You!_ You're the one who killed Mrs. Norris, aren't you?"

The emerald-eyed boy stilled, and his expression turned serious. "I didn't, Mr. Filch. I just walked up here and found her like that."

The caretaker's face twisted into one of ugly rage. He needed an outlet for his grief, and Cub was his new target. "I don't believe it," he snarled. "Why else would you be hiding up there, if not so you wouldn't get caught red-handed?"

Cub sighed. "Look, I swear I didn't do a thing to your cat. Here, I'll prove it." He held up his wand and intoned, "I solemnly swear upon my magic that I am not responsible, whether directly or indirectly, for what happened to Mrs. Norris." Sparks flew, and Cub proceeded to cast a simple _Wingardium Leviosa _on a scrap of parchment to prove he still had his magic. "There. See?"

Filch growled, but spun around and glared at the assembled students. "Then which one of you did it?" he roared. Spittle flew in a wide spray. "Which one?!"

The Headmaster placed a hand on his shoulder. "Now now, Argus," he said comfortingly. "I'm sure we can get to the bottom of this. Come with me. You too, Mr… Pride. Since you were the first one on the scene, I need to know if you saw anything."

I could see Cub thinking for a moment, before shrugging carelessly. "Sure. Can't find a fault with that logic," he replied before sliding off the rafter. Several students shrieked as he fell at least twenty feet before landing soundlessly in a crouch. His black robes billowed out dramatically before settling, and he brushed some of the dust off of his legs after standing straight.

When he looked up at the teachers, I could see Professors McGonagall and Snape hiding what looked suspiciously like smiles.

"Alright, let's go," Cub said.

* * *

><p>"It was definitely a curse that killed her- probably the Transmogrifian Torture- I've seen it used many times, so unlucky I wasn't there, I know the very countercurse that would have saved her..."<p>

"Ahem." Cub cleared his throat, and all eyes turned towards him. "Yeah, it'd be so unlucky, if she was actually dead."

Filch perked up from here he was slumped in a chair, sobbing dryly. "Not dead?" he choked out. "But why's she all- all stiff and frozen?"

Cub walked over and put a hand on Mrs. Norris's flank. "Not completely sure, actually. I do know that since she's still generating body heat she is still alive. But her eyes are open, so it's not some strange inexplicable coma. Um… Petrification, maybe?" he hedged. Then his eyes lit up. "Wait a minute. Can I- can I try something?" he asked Filch. "I promise it won't hurt her. Or, well, it shouldn't, anyway."

The man hesitated for a moment before nodding stiffly. Cub turned back to the cat. The adults backed away slightly, though Dumblesnore looked interested. Cub then took out Flare's pokeball and released him, the arbok coming out in a flash of red light.

"There. This look familiar to you?" he whispered. Flare slithered around to Mrs. Norris, tongue flickering in and out. He peered at the cat's glassy eyes, frozen posture, unsheathed claws, and seemed to come to a conclusion.

"Yes," he hissed after a minute. "It- she looks similar to my opponents when I use the Glare attack on them. But much, _much_ more powerful. Try using a Full Restore or three. Or maybe a few pints of concentrated cheri berry juice."

"Not a Paralyze Heal?" Cub asked softly.

Flare shook his head. "No, it wouldn't be strong enough. You have some Full Restores in your trunk, right?"

Cub nodded, then straightened up. He turned and addressed Filch. "I might have something that'll help, but it's in my trunk. Can I got get it?"

Dumble's eye narrowed, but Professor McGonagall nodded.

"Quickly," she said. Cub dipped his head in acknowledgement, then spun around and left the room. Flare was recalled, vanishing again as the red and white capsule then shrunk back down to carrying size. He fast-walked down the now-empty corridor, towards the Ravenclaw Tower.

Once there, he answered the riddle, went up, and grabbed a few of the pokemon medicines while ignoring everyone who tried to ask him questions. He all but ran back down, and trotted quickly back to Lockhart's office with the bottles in his pocket. Full Restores were extremely potent, and if it didn't work they'd have to use magical means.

"Eh? What's that?" Filch asked when Cub pulled out one of the green and white spray bottles.

"It's medicine from my homeland. It's called a Full Restore. Very potent stuff, so if this doesn't work we'll have to use magic," he replied as he sprayed it all over the feline's stiff body. Once he was at a half bottle left she began to twitch, and her eyes moved. Ears swiveled slightly, and her tail uncurled.

By the time it was all gone she could move her front paws, tail, and ears. The use of a second bottle restored all muscle response, and she purred happily as she stood, stretched, and jumped into Filch's lap. He laughed and hugged her, while Cub looked on with a satisfied smile. Lockhart and Dumbesore had twin expressions of shock, while McGonagall and Snape seemed surprised but pleased.

"Pride, what was _in_ that… potion?" Snape asked curiously as he picked up one of the empty bottles and scrutinized it carefully. The Potions Master pried off the top and sniffed the inside. "Interesting…"

Cub squinted and scratched his cheek, brow furrowed. "Um, I don't know…" he said slowly. "Distilled and concentrated berry juice, maybe?"

Snape nodded absentmindedly as he waved his wand over it. "Yes, but I don't recognize any of them, much less the other components," he muttered under his breath.

"Whatever it is, it worked!" Filch cried gleefully. He looked over at Cub and said sincerely, "Thank you."

* * *

><p>Over the next few days, Filch could be seen prowling the halls as usual, with Mrs. Norris close behind. However, he was a bit kinder than before, and never let his cat out of his sight. She seemed content enough to stick by him, and the school was buzzing with rumors of how Cub had managed to cure her. But every time someone asked, he would only smile secretively and say, "That's personal."<p>

The old janitor had also tried scrubbing off the ominous message, too, but to no avail. It seemed that no matter what he tried the words refused to leave the wall. Everyone just kind of avoided that corridor now, while Lockhart strutted around proclaiming how he would valiantly save the next victim if there was another attack. Nobody was particularly reassured, though, since they didn't really believe him anymore. Not after the pixies. And according to Draca, _Good riddance._

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><p><strong>OMAKE: Devil's Delight<strong>

"Now, let's see, I need an assistant… ah! Harry!"

Cub bit back a groan, and I snickered at his misfortune. Lockhart was getting students to help him act out parts from his books, and it was _torture._ Now he wanted Cub to play a werewolf, which I found hilarious. _Werepanther, more like._

Then, I felt a sudden chill as the young male got a strange gleam in his eye. I shivered slightly. The last time I'd seen that… well, let's just say that it had preceded every prank that Cub had ever done, and there had been a lot of them. For a moment, I almost felt sorry for Lockhart. Almost.

"Excuse me, Professor, but do you mind if I have my friend do it for me? His name is Devil, and he is from a species of animals that come from my homeland. Very smart, just as much as a human. He understands our language, too, so don't worry about giving him commands." He took out the houndoom's pokeball and released him, smirking slightly as the canine pokémon bared his fangs. Lockhart flinched back, and Cub pretended not to notice.

"W-well, I s-suppose that's f-fine," the man stuttered. Devil padded up to the front, tail swinging as his mouth opened slightly in anticipation. I could tell that my friend was enjoying this.

"Good. Devil needed a chance to stretch his legs, and since he's playing a werewolf it'll be perfect. Did you know that his species' howl was once considered the call of the Grim Reaper?" Cub mentioned, smiling innocently. "Of course, it's all superstition, but his name _is_ Devil for a reason. But, since you're such a great wizard, I'm sure you can handle it."

The blond idiot now looked even more nervous, but there was no backing out without hurting his image. So he turned his attention to the large black and orange pokémon in front of him.

"Er… so, you're going to howl, like a werewolf," he said uncertainly. Devil grinned, took a step back, raised his head to the ceiling-

And unleashed a _Howl_ attack that made my blood run cold and my heart almost stop.

_D***. Forgot how good he was at those._

Some of the students actually fainted, while Lockhart let out a girly shriek and then collapsed, limp, on the floor. Devil lowered his head and let out a huff of laughter, sitting back on his haunches. "Oops," he barked, completely unapologetically.

Cub snickered.


	6. Dueling

**Hello, everyone! I'm back from my camp, which you might have seen if you read my other story Honor Among Thieves! And yes, that was shameless self promoting. Anyway, the response for the last chapter was amazing! THANK YOU! And I just checked the stats of this story, which is at 180 Favorites, 230 Followers, 7 Communities, and 8974 Views! Some of which are from Spain, Poland, Bermuda, Aruba, Austrailia, the UK... GASP! So many! I'm so, so happy... :D.**

**And HUGE THANKS to everyone who reviewed, which was 13 people! They were Wishfull-star, Olaf74, DragonClaw827, magical fan18, Krazyfanfiction1, Seas and Shadows, Nightwing 509, Sakura Lisel, Taranodongirl1, ultima-owner, Cowmaiden, TimeWolfSaphira, and !**

**To magical fan18: Maybe I will, if I find the time. Unfortunately my life is soon to get very busy, so it may not appear for a while- if ever. Sorry.**

**To krazyfanfiction1: I actually have a similar attack planned out for one of my other stories, a solely Pokémon fanfic. Except with a lucario's Aura. May not appear in this one, though.**

**To Seas and Shadows: Wow. That's a lot of Mountain Dew. But you're not as crazy as Lily, the insane voice in my head! She laughs all the time. It can get slightly annoying. Her voice does give out once in a while, luckily for me, so right now I have some quiet.**

**To Sakura Lisel: Hm, that's true. Maybe they weren't thinking. After all, like the saying goes- a person is smart, but people are stupid.**

**On a completely unrelated note, after this story is finished I'm considering posting a Pokémon fanfic called Shapeshifter. I've already got two chapters written up, and each is about the same length as an Honor Among Thieves chapter. AKA, 10 pages on Google Docs. However, it will be OC-centric. The tentative summary is this: **_"Wait, so you're actually some evil scientists' lab experiment gone wrong?" he asked incredulously. I laughed bitterly, and replied, "No, more like evil criminal organization's lab experiment gone right."_** It's about a girl who was experimented on by Team Rocket and transformed into a human-pokemon hybrid. She escapes, gets captured again, makes a bet with Giovanni. The bet is that if she can take the Pokémon League challenge, defeat the Elite Four and the Champion (Lance) with only three pokémon (a rapidash, lucario, and lapras), then Team Rocket with leave her alone. All within a year and half, a virtually impossible task. She takes the bet, and begins her pokémon journey. Will have humor, friendship, and Amaya (the main character) teasing Lance about his capes. **

**If you would be interested in reading it, please let me know! Otherwise I might not post it. Thanks!**

**Also, I was wondering if I should skip Cub's third year completely or just have some other criminal escape in place of Sirius Black. Please leave a review or PM me if you want your opinion known on that! Thanks! Enjoy the chapter, and I apologize for the long Author's Note.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot, and even that is only semi-original.**

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><p>Cub was sitting under a tree on the shore of the lake, reading when two his three friends came rushing over after the day's Gryffindor-Slytherin Quidditch match. As usual he had skipped it, opting instead to read a book on magical creatures in hopes of finding the creature that had attacked Mrs. Norris. The Pride were lounging around him, enjoying the sun. Except for Flare, who was out in the Forbidden Forest.<p>

"Harry! Have you heard? Potter was attacked by a rogue Bludger during the match, and it broke his arm! Then Lockhart tried to fix it and vanished all his bones from the shoulder down instead!" Neville cried as he and Hermione approached. Luna had decided to work on something she called a 'private project' over in Hagrid's garden instead, and thus was absent.

"_What_?" Cub said in shock, looking up from his book. "_Seriously_?"

"Yeah! It got all floppy and rubbery, too, like a rag doll. It was so strange!"

My ears perked up in interest. The Idiot-Who-Lived had no bones in his arm? I wanted to see that. I wondered if Wizarding healing had something to regrow bones. They probably did.

"Lockhart? Of course. Why am I not surprised," Glider muttered sarcastically from his perch on a thick branch. "I wonder how he managed to pass school. He did go to Hogwarts, right? Shame the Giant Squid didn't eat him."

"Who knows, and who cares," Spike yawned.

Flare slithered back from his trip to the Forbidden Forest, coiling up in a patch of warm grass near where Draca was dozing. After Mrs. Norris had been Petrified and Cub had heard that strange voice, Flare had been doing some investigating. According to the local wildlife there was a new predator roaming the woods, a massive snake judging by the tracks and occasional large black scale. It was smart and stayed out of the areas frequented by the staff, even those who roamed in their animagus forms. A unicorn had told us that it came from underground, entering and exiting from a large tunnel that apparently smelled of old water and stone.

As to what exactly this creature was, however, all we knew was that it was massive and reptilian. Only glimpses had been caught- a flash of black scales here, the tip of a tail slithering away there. It did seem to be making the spiders and acromantulas very nervous, though. Cub had been researching endlessly to try and find it, and had narrowed it down to a basilisk (which would fit with what we knew of the Chamber of Secrets legend).

However, Flare had mentioned that it felt almost like a seviper. Since we knew that the Pokemon and the Wizarding Worlds had once been one, Cub theorized that it could be some ancestor or crossbred of the two species. The creature's massive size, however, was well over twice the largest recorded known basilisk and seviper. Most seviper were only two and a half to three meters long, while basilisk could grow to almost fifty feet at most.

Our only possible explanation for that would be age, and the fact that it was living in magically saturated area. Perhaps the latent magic had helped it to grow much larger than the rest of its species. The fact that it was possible a crossbreed might have helped as well. Still, we couldn't confirm it until we saw the creature for ourselves.

Also, upon digging into the Chamber of Secrets, old newspapers revealed that it had apparently been opened 50 years ago, by _Hagrid_ of all people. A student had died, as well, and the picture was recognized as Moaning Myrtle from the abandoned girl's bathroom. Cub was planning on talking with both her and Mrs. Norris at some point to try and get more details, but was quite busy at the moment.

Hermione and Neville were very close to finding their animagus forms, but were also being coached on Pokemon Care/Training and the basics of wandless magic. Luna was learning, too, a little behind but catching up quickly. Add in the possible Horcrux Cub may have discovered in Hogwarts plus preparations and arrangements with the goblins on the ritual to remove the Horcrux in him and… well, he was busy.

"Hey, find anything?" Draca said sleepily as Flare's eyes drooped from the sun's warmth.

"Not much," he replied quietly. "But it apparently has a strange knife-thing on the end of its tail, and there were traces of snake venom that was like a mixture of seviper's poison and something else. It seems to be getting dangerously close to unicorn territory, though. They're starting to get nervous about the foals. The centaurs, too."

Cub overhead and let out a small groan. "It's like Quirrell all over again," he muttered under his breath. "Have any unicorns or centaurs been taken?"

Flare shook his head. "Not yet."

"Harry, what's he saying?" Hermione asked, unable to keep quiet any longer. "What about the unicorns and centaurs?"

Cub looked up and closed his book. "Whatever attacked Mrs. Norris is still out there," he told them. "It's been hunting in the Forbidden Forest, and the herds are nervous it'll start taking their foals."

"Who, the unicorns or the centaurs?" Neville interjected.

Cub's face turned grim. "Both."

* * *

><p>Time passed. Chistopher's arm healed, though he claimed that a house elf named Dobby was responsible for sabotaging the Bludger, and Christmas Break drew nearer. Snow fell and Colin Creevey was attacked. Hermione, Neville, and Luna found their animagus forms, and were now working on the transformation part. Their wandless magic had progressed to simple spells such as lumos and wingardium leviosa, while Cub had found time to slip out and ask Mewtwo to bring him more Full Restores.<p>

With those he'd easily been able to cure Colin, though since he was a lot bigger than Mrs. Norris it took five instead of two. After that, Cub had decided it would be a good idea to start carrying some Full Restores around. So now, in his magically extended bag, he had ten Full Restores and cheri berry seeds along with his school stuff.

The witnesses, too, had reported seeing yellow eyes just before they were Petrified. Mrs. Norris through the pool of water and Colin through the camera lens, which was unfortunately melted. Myrtle, though, had seen them directly and died as a result. Further proof that it was a basilisk/seviper hybrid, as basilisks were well known for their killing glare.

We'd also gone to check out the tunnel that the creature used to leave the castle, and set up wards that would tell us when it exited and entered. This way we could figure out if it had some sort of feeding schedule, and see if we could get into wherever it lived (most likely the Chamber of Secrets) while it was out.

Cub wasn't exactly thrilled at the prospect of fighting a giant, magic-resistant basilisk-seviper hybrid that could kill with a single look. So, he thought that perhaps he could lay out a trap for it- poison, a curse, or some way or getting rid of the creature without actually matching it in battle. In terms of sheer power if could be as strong as a legendary for all we knew, and we still hadn't figured out how it was getting around the school. Cub was still hearing the occasional hissed word or slithering sound in the walls, but at least nobody else had been attacked.

Theories abounded the halls, and Colin had become a sort of minor celebrity. Christopher and Ron had been caught stealing potions ingredients from Professor Snape's personal store, and it was found that they had been planning on making Polyjuice Potion. For what reason was unknown, but Professor Snape gave them a month's detention for it. When we next met in the forest, he gloated about it for ten minutes straight.

"Oh, Harry. Come see, it seems that they've started a dueling club," Luna said dreamily as she walked over, Pointing to the notice board that was currently blocked by a crowd of people, she added, "I hope Professor Flitwick is teaching it. He used to be a Dueling Champion in his youth, you know. I hear he was blessed by blixelps."

"Um, okay, sure," Cub said as he blinked slightly in confusion. "Why not. I really hope it's Professor Flitwick, though. And pray to Arceus we don't get Lockhart or something."

Luna raised an eyebrow. "Arceus?" she said. "Oh, why would you pray to him? He's in another galaxy, far, far, away. He wouldn't be able to hear you."

Cub jumped slightly. I didn't think he'd realized that he'd slipped up. Oops. It made me wonder, though- how did she know about Arceus?

* * *

><p>That night at eight o'clock, after dinner, we and Cub's three friends made our way to the Great Hall. A long golden stage had replaced the four House tables, lit by thousands of floating candles. I snorted softly. Electricity would have been brighter and more even, but wizards were too primitive for that. And it was really a shame electronic devices didn't work with all the magic-saturated air. Oh well.<p>

It seemed that most of the school was packed into the large hall, chattering excitedly and carrying their wands. I was glad to be inside the pokeball, and thus unable to smell the scent of many warm humans wearing heavy robes packed into one area. Hermione and Neville were eagerly scanning the stage, while Luna smiled airily as she fingered one of the corks on her necklace.

"Please be Flitwick," Cub muttered under his breath, "or at least anybody except-"

_Lockhart. Dangit._

The blond idiot himself was striding out atop the stage, wearing robes of a deep plum and flashing that sparkly smile everywhere. Professor Snape followed him, expression twisted into one of annoyance. I had a brief, wonderful vision of the two dueling and Snape transforming into Prince as Lockhart was body-tackled to the ground, pinned by almost 200 pounds of snarling black panther.

"Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!" he called.

"I wish I couldn't," Cub murmured quietly. He was rather annoyed that he'd skipped searching for the Hogwarts Horcrux for this. We had anticipated someone better, more proficient, at actual fighting. Though, Professor Snape wasn't too bad…

"Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions- for full details, see my published works. Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," he said with a wide smile. "He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry- you'll still have your Potions Master when I'm through with him, never fear!"

"Honestly, I'm more worried for Lockhart," Neville whispered to Cub.

The two professors got into their dueling stances and bowed, Lockhart explaining what they were about to do. I watched eagerly, waiting for the idiot to get blasted away. And I was not disappointed. Using a simple _expelliarmus,_ Snape blasted him off his feet, off the stage, and into the wall. The Slytherins cheered.

After that, the students were partnered up for dueling practice. Hermione got Neville while Cub partnered Luna. I saw a glimpse of Christopher and Malfoy glaring daggers at each other, clearly having been paired up against each of their wills.

Once the practice began, however, everything dissolved into chaos. Spells flew everywhere, and it was belatedly realized that far too many students knew how to attack but not to defend. Twice Cub had to shield Luna from wayward curses, and in the end simply resorted to created a translucent dome around him and his three friends. Then we pretty much just waited it out, as spells bounced off the clear bubble.

"Ugh. I should have stayed in the dorms," Neville muttered as he sat crosslegged on the floor. Hermione joined him, nodding in agreement.

"I could have done more research instead," she agreed.

Luna smiled. "It is quite funny, though. Look, I do believe Malfoy's been bitten by the Dancing Bug."

Cub turned to look, and lo and behold, there was Malfoy dancing what appeared to be an Irish Jig of some sort. His opponent had almost collapsed from laughter, since the arrogant Slytherin was also singing an Opera from the top of his lungs.

"Huh. 'Don Giovanni', by Mozart. Who knew he was a soprano. Having some trouble with the high notes, but otherwise not a bad performance," Hermione mused. "I like that opera. My parents showed it to me on TV once. Doesn't quite fit with the dance, though."

Neville laughed. Cub produced a deck of cards. "So, anyone up for a game of Liar while we wait?"

During the course of game we learned that apparently, Luna knows a lot of fancy card tricks to do when she shuffles and deals. It was pretty cool. And her pokerface is even better than Cub's. Who knew, eh?

Looking around, I saw that the duels had mostly stopped and the two teachers were now trying to restore order. Snape walked over to Cub's shield at tapped on it to get his attention.

"Pride, I believe it is safe to let the shield down now," he said with a smirk. "Potter and Malfoy had stopped firing spells at each other."

The dome shimmered, then vanished, and the four students gathered up the cards. Cub stood and stretched, then tucked the deck back into whatever pocket it had appeared from. "Oh, good," he replied. "I was losing anyway. Luna's got a surprisingly good pokerface, you know."

Meanwhile, Lockhart flitted from pair to pair as he wrung his hands, like a nervous beautifly. Standing in the middle of the hall, he looked quite flustered. "I think I'd better teach you how to _block_ unfriendly spells," he said half to himself. "Let's have a volunteer pair- Pride and Malfoy, how about you-"

Suddenly, everyone fell deathly silent. All eyes turned to Cub and Malfoy. The former smirked evilly, while the latter seemed distinctly reluctant to fight. After all, he would be without his two bodyguards this time- and everyone had seen how easily Cub had taken down Potter the previous year.

He didn't have the chance to refuse, though, as Lockhart ushered them both into the middle of the hall and people cleared to make space. The boy had turned pale, paler than usual, but tried to hide it with an arrogant sneer. It didn't completely work.

"Now, Harry," Lockhart said. "When Draco points his wand at you, you do _this._" He raised his own wand, attempted a sort of complicated wiggling action, and dropped it. Snape smirked as Lockhart quickly picked it up. I snickered.

Lockhart cuffed Cub merrily on the shoulder, who frowned and edged away slightly. Then the blond took a few steps back, raised his hand, and shouted, "Three- two- one- go!"

Malfoy raised his wand quickly and bellowed, "_Serpensortia!_"

A large black snake shot out of the tip of his wand and landed heavily on the floor. Students screamed and backed away as it glared angrily, raising itself up to strike.

"Everyone remain calm! Allow me!" shouted Lockhart. He brandished his wand at the snake and there was a loud bang; the snake, instead of vanishing, flew ten feet into the air and then back to the floor with a loud _smack._ Enraged, hissing furiously, it slithered straight towards one of the Hufflepuff students and prepared to strike with fangs exposed.

Cub's hand went to our pokeballs. "Flare!" he yelled as he threw the arbok's capsule. The large pokemon emerged with a flash of light, easily dwarfing the smaller snake. The black one raised itself up and bared its fangs, hissing. Flare, hood fully extended, opened his mouth and hissed right back. The smaller reptile seemed to back down slightly, sensing that it was longer the biggest predator around.

Flare's eyes flashed as he used Glare, effectively paralyzing the other snake. It froze in place, shuddering slightly as it tried to break free. Then Snape waved his wand, and the whole thing was over as it vanished in a small puff of black smoke.

The large arbok slithered over to Cub, who reached up and stroked the top of his head fondly. "Good job," he murmured before opening up the red and white sphere and sucking Flare back in. The hall was silent. Cub had just defeated a big snake… with an even _bigger_ snake. I could see the fear in people's eyes, the way they were backing away from the black-haired Trainer. And Potter, standing on the sidelines, was glaring like he wanted Cub to burst into flames and crumble to ash.

* * *

><p>"Well, well. That was quite a show you put on, Shadow," Prince purred smoothly. Professor McGonagall snorted.<p>

"Perhaps, but it was still quite dangerous! What if the snake had been Flare? What if the snake had turned on you?" she snapped. Both teachers were in their animagus forms, lounging in the clearing that Cub had first revealed the truth to them in. Cub had decided to go as a black panther, since it was more nocturnal than his other forms.

"Hey, I knew Flare wouldn't get hurt! He's a Poison-type, remember? And that snake was nothing. You should have seen the time he decided to fight a torterra. It was even bigger than Root, and Flare still won! Besides, you know I could have taken care of myself. Parselmouth, remember?" Cub protested.

Professor McGonagall stared at him, shocked. Prince looked dumbfounded. "I-" Prince blinked, then narrowed his eyes. "You're a Parselmouth?"

Cub nodded. "Yeah. Didn't I tell you?"

The two felines shook their heads. "No _wonder_ they say you're the Heir of Slytherin," he muttered to himself. "No _wonder._"

The tabby housecat could only in agreement, eyes wide. "Mr. Pride, you will never cease to amaze me," she said softly.


	7. The Winter Tournament- Part One

**ARGH. Real life is so busy. And I haven't updating this fic in... *checks date* over two months.**

**...I'M SORRY! My only excuse is that with the coming of Fall is the coming of an extreme lack of free time. I've had this chapter sitting half-written for weeks, but I've only gotten around to finishing it now. Argh! My complete and utter lack of an updating schedule is ridiculous.**

**So, um... for those of you still reading, I apologize for taking so long. I re-read the last chapter, and my gosh it was terrible. I'm sorry for that, too, but I have no time to rewrite now. Also, for those of you who reviewed and said that the Pride are feeling a bit 2-D, I agree. So this chapter, along with the next, is going to be pretty much showcasing the Pride's abilities. Well, mostly the next chapter.**

**HUGE THANKS to Krazyfanfiction1, codybob, DragonClaw827, FANatic Writer, Nightwing 509, Olaf74, ultima-owner, Wishfull-star, Taranodongirl1, Seas and Shadows, RedWolf Lover, Baby Fawn, Butterlover328, Guest, Rescue9911, and ElementalMaster16 for reviewing!**

**...Holy Fudge. 16 reviews for one chapter. That's, like, more than I've gotten for the last three Honor Among Thieves chapters (hint, hint- yes, shameless self-promotion) combined. Wow. You guys are amazing!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own either the Harry Potter or Pokémon franchise. **

* * *

><p>The snow was falling. Thick white flakes drifted down from a soft grey sky, settling and melting on my fur. The forest was silent, a thick carpet of white blanketing the entire floor. In many places it was completely undisturbed, a perfect, untouched surface. A sense of peace and serenity permeated the calm woods.<p>

Then the rampaging momma ursaring appeared, and suddenly the forest wasn't nearly quite so peaceful anymore.

"Run! Run! Run! Run!" Cub shouted gleefully, a wild grin on his face as he pelted through the woods. Hermione and Neville were hot on his heels, eyes wide and panicked.

"That idiot," Glider said as he poked his head down from his spot in the treetops. "One of these days, he's going to get himself killed."

Spike sighed and rolled his eyes as he leaned against a tree trunk, watching as three brown and black blurs rushed past, followed by one significantly larger and heavier light brown blur. "Let me guess. Somebody let him lick the frosting from the bowl while they were baking Christmas Cookies again, didn't they." The lucario's tone was flat, almost bored, as the ground shook and snow rained down from the trees.

"Probably," Devil groaned in exasperation. "Wonderful, _just_ what we need. Cub on sugar high. And he's dragged his poor friends along for the ride, too. Anyone got a titanium cage ready?"

I sighed. "And there go all my hunting prospects," I muttered under my breath. "There isn't going to be a lick of prey around here for miles now."

There was a massive roar before an explosion sounded and a wide beam of pure energy lanced through the trees. Spike ducked as it passed harmlessly over his head, leaving charred wood and melted snow in its wake. "Oh, great," he said dryly. "Now it's mad enough to use Hyper Beam."

More crashes. A loud roar. The crackle of burning flame. A black and green blur was catapulted into the clearing, landing and skidding on the snow until it hit a tree. Cub, in ninetails form, rolled back up to his paws with a groan.

"Ow," he muttered. "D***. Hammer Arm _hurts._"

"Well, it wouldn't if you hadn't annoyed that ursaring into fighting you in the first place," I told him dryly.

He smirked mischievously. "But what would be the fun in that?"

The ursaring in question burst into the clearing. Cub hit it head-on with a Fire Blast, and it roared in pain before staggering away to nurse its wounds.

Hermione and Neville appeared a few moments later, wide-eyed and fearful. "Is it gone?" Neville asked in a hushed whisper.

Cub yawned, showing off gleaming white fangs. He grinned foxily, green-tipped tails waving in smug satisfaction. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"You really are a showoff," she said before stepping fully out onto the melted snow, grimacing slightly as her boots sank into the now-slushy ground. "Let me guess. Fire-type attack?"

"Fire Blast," Spike confirmed. "But the ursaring used Hyper Beam before that."

"See, it's not _completely_ my fault!"

"Mm, no, it completely is."

Amethyst, stepping delicately across the snow, let out a small laugh. "Isn't it always?"

Another roar echoed through the woods. "What was that?" Neville asked.

Cub winced. "Um, I may or may not have transfigured a giant pressure mat-activated catapult about half a mile back?"

A thunderous _crash_. Flocks of pidgey rose from the trees, chattering loudly as their perches shook and toppled.

If I had hands, I would have facepalmed.

* * *

><p>It was cold. Our breath came out in small white clouds, puffing up then dispersing in the chilly air. It was dark, the winter season's sunset coming hours earlier than the summer's. It was windy, with swirling breezes that kicked up little drifts of white and ruffled fur with invisible hands.<p>

"Remind me again why we're doing this?" Spike groused as we trudged through the snow, paws sinking in almost four inches with every step. "And why we couldn't just do one of Cub's insta-transport magic teleportation things instead?"

"It's good exercise," Cub replied cheerfully, emerald eyes sparkling. "And isn't the night sky here beautiful?" He gestured to the wide expanse of stars that twinkled brightly in the darkness of space, glittering like so many diamonds sewn into a cloth of black velvet.

"Frikin' _cold_ is what the night sky here is," Spike grumbled. "Are you sure we're not lost?"

"We'd better not be," Flare hissed. "Because by all rights I should be _hibernating_ right now, not slithering through ice-cold snow when my blood is actually capable of literally _freezing_ if I stay in these temperatures for much longer."

I sighed. "Flare has a point, Cub. Seriously, just do the teleportation thing."

Cub pouted, but was forced to concede. "Fine," he muttered. Everyone grinned with relief and gathered around, close enough to touch as Cub muttered a few words under his breath, gathering magic in his hands- and _pulled_.

* * *

><p>The Winter Tournament, as the event we'd walked over what felt like a small forest and half a mountain to compete in was called, consisted of what was essentially a bunch of knockout battles all in a row. If you won, you continued. If you lost, you were out, simple as that.<p>

"So… you want us to compete in this 'Winter Tournament' competition?" Hermione asked as she looked around, seeing all the Trainers that had gathered for the event. It was very new, having only been introduced this year, and the turnout was pretty good.

"Yup!" Cub replied cheerfully. "I thought it would be good test of your skills. You and Neville have improved a lot as Trainers, but always battling against me or each other doesn't give you a lot of variety. Plus, it'll be a good experience."

A fearow swooped low overhead, and a meowth could be seen napping on the roof of one of the buildings. Neville gulped nervously. "Are you sure?" One hand was resting on Root's pokeball, rubbing it slightly for reassurance.

Cub nodded enthusiastically. "Of course! You guys will be fine, trust me. It's not like I'm expecting you to win, or anything, since I don't know how strong the Trainers competing are going to be, but I think you'd a battle or two."

"One if we're lucky," Hermione muttered under her breath. Louder, she asked, "You said that most Trainers carry a full party of six pokemon, right? Neville and I only have one each, even if they are powerful. And like you said, we've only ever battled each other and you. We don't have that much experience with other battling styles."

Cub nodded. "Exactly. Heck, it doesn't even matter if you lose your first match. It's not like we're competing with huge stake or anything; this is just for fun. Keep that in mind. And," he added with a wicked smirk, "because the Pride need a chance to stretch their legs. We've still been training, but well, no offense," he shot his friends an apologetic look, "we haven't exactly been participating in regular high-level battles lately."

Neville nodded understandingly. "It's okay," he assured Cub with a sheepish smile. "Just make sure that you win at least one more battle than us, 'cause you don't have the excuse of only using one pokemon."

I snorted in from inside my pokeball. "If we lose before at least getting to the semifinals, I'm going to ask Merlin and Morgana to break out their insane training regimen again," I muttered to myself. Even though the two ancient wizard's and witch's training methods were absolute _torture_, that still had to be better than getting too out of shape.

Cub laughed, and was about to say something when he was cut off by an enthusiastic shout from somewhere to his left.

"Hey! Harry! _Harry_!"

All three Trainers turned towards the shout, and were met with the sight of a widely grinning blond boy who burst out of the crowd in front of them, almost running smack into Cub before the older boy set out one hand to steady him.

"Hello, Damien," Cub greeted with a smile. "What are you doing here? I thought you were back at Sinnoh."

Damien grinned wider. "Visiting relatives," he answered with a shrug. "Heard about this tournament, and figured it would be fun. Oh, and I almost forgot! Harry, look at what I won!"

Rummaging around in his pocket, he pulled out two shiny badges and proudly presented them to his role model. Cub nodded in approval.

"Congratulations. Two already? Very nice," he said by way of congratulations. Then he seemed to remember that he had other friends, too, and turned to introduce them. "Oh, by the way, these are my friends Hermione and Neville from school. Guys, this is Damien. He's from Sinnoh, another region almost halfway across the world from here."

Damian beamed, all but _bouncing_ up to Cub's friends as he eagerly introduced himself. "Hi! Like Harry said, I'm Damien, from Sinnoh, and I'm going to become the Sinnoh League Champion! I like pokemon, pokemon battling, pokemon training, and ice cream! Harry and I met this summer and traveled together for a little bit. He's really strong, so are you guys really strong too?" He said this all very fast, barely pausing for breath between sentences.

Hermione and Neville blinked, a bit stunned at his… _exuberance_, let's say. To be honest, it sort of reminded me of Hermione when we had first met her.

"Erm, hello," Neville said awkwardly. "I'm Neville. I like plants and my torterra, Root. Uh, we aren't really good Trainers yet; we just started, really. Focusing more on school at the moment."

Hermione stepped forward. "I'm Hermione, also just a beginning Trainer. I like reading, learning, my espeon, Amethyst, and researching. Like Neville, I only started recently. All three of us- Harry, Neville, and I -go to school together, so that's how we met."

Damien raised one eyebrow in a faintly puzzled expression. "Huh. Interesting. You say that you guys are only beginning Trainers, but you," he turned to Neville, "have a fully-evolved torterra. Heck, _my_ starter's still only a second-stage evolved monferno! And you," he looked at Hermione, "have a rare eeveelution not usually found with rookie Trainers. Not to mention that torterra evolves from a _Sinnoh_ starter, and eevee isn't even a starter at all. The Orre region doesn't count."

Cub laughed sheepishly. "Ah, that would be my fault. Root and Amethyst's pokeballs were actually found in a storage closet at our school, covered in dust and pretty old judging by the thickness. We're not sure whether their Trainers abandoned or lost them, but since they evidently weren't coming back, I dusted them off a bit and gave them to Hermione and Neville as starters."

Damien tilted his head to the side in confusion. "Really? That's weird. But I guess if nobody else ever claimed them it's alright," he shrugged. "Anyway, are you guys competing in the tournament?"

"Yup!" Cub grinned. "All three of us. That means that we may end up battling you in one of the rounds."

The younger Trainer grinned. "Well, then, sorry, but I won't hold back!" he said. "I'll defeat you and win the tournament!"

"Not if I beat you first," Cub shot back good-naturedly.

I sighed. "Oh, great," I muttered. "Now he's making it a competition. _Wonderful_."

So much for just a casual round of battling. Now Cub was aiming to _win_, which meant that we were going to have to put more than the minimum amount of effort into this thing.

Ach. Of course. Oh, well. I supposed we needed the exercise anyway.

* * *

><p>"Round One: Harry Pride vs Timothy Jenkins!"<p>

The crowd cheered. Cub took up his place at one end of the field, while his opponent walked out to the other. For this first battle, he was fighting a slightly older teen with black hair, freckles, and thickly-rimmed glasses.

The referee raised a flag high in the air, then dropped it. "Begin!" he shouted, blowing a whistle.

The older boy acted first. "Go, Ivysaur!"

Cub smirked. "Go, Devil!" he cried. The houndoom was released with a flash of light, bursting out with an intimidating howl.

His opponents (both human and pokemon) cursed audibly.

"Devil, use Flamethrower," Cub said.

Devil bared his teeth in a dangerous grin and opened his jaws wide. A bright light began to shine from somewhere in the back of his throat before it was suddenly released in a huge stream of orange and red, roaring towards Ivysaur in a wave of heat and burning sparks.

The Grass-type swore, too slow to dodge completely. The edges of several green fronds blackened and curled, numerous burns searing into existence as the pokemon was forced to weather the attack.

Cub grinned, and didn't let up on his aggressive offense. "Keep going! Don't stop!"

The other Trainer gritted his teeth, then shouted, "Ivysaur! Protect!"

A glowing dome snapped into place around Ivysaur, protecting him from Devil's flames. His Trainer shouted again, "Now Vine Whip!"

The dome shimmered and fell as several vines burst from the squat pokemon's body, whipping through the air with a sharp whistling sound like thick cables. Devil was forced to leap away, dodging every strike and repelling some with bursts of flame when they got too close. Wherever the vines hit the ground they left deep gouges in the dirt, providing more motivation to avoid them.

Devil grinned, a slightly unnerving sight as he revealed deadly sharp fangs. "This is kinda fun!" he remarked, before snapping at another green whip with a mouth full of fire as it lashed too close to his face for comfort.

Cub mirrored the expression, and cried out, "Flamethrower again!"

_Whoosh._

Green crackled and curled to black as they hastily retracted back into wherever they'd come from, Ivysaur hopping to the side barely in time to avoid the bulk of the flames. Unfortunately for him, all Devil had to do was move his jaws a little to the left.

A roar of pain, then-

Nothing. The fire died away, revealing that Ivysaur had taken one too many heavy hits too early in the battle to recover. Devil howled victoriously.

Cub's opponent frowned as he recalled his starter, no doubt reevaluating Cub's strength. Then he smirked, and pulled out another pokeball.

"Go, Mankey!"

I chuckled to myself. Going for a type advantage, eh? Too bad Glider was part Flying-type.

Settling back to watch the show, I had a feeling that this tournament was going to be _fun_.


	8. The Winter Tournament- Part Two

**Hey, this update's kinda-sorta-ish-not-really on time! Ehehehe... yeah, I dunno. I'm tired. Life is killing me. I need more sleep. Sorry for terrible Pokémon battles in this chapter, I was experimenting a bit with animal battles and pokémon battles. Which are hard to write. Gah.**

**HUGE THANKS to Krazyfanfiction1, Dragonclaw827, ElementalMaster16, ultima-owner, Wishfull-star, DarkKitsuneFluffy, and Seas and Shadows for reviewing!**

**To Krazyfanfiction1: Okay, so, I've been thinking over what you said. And I realized that, unfortunately, I can't quite write that in just yet. That type of modification and experimentation on moves is usually something done during training, not during a battle. Which means that if I write it in this story, it won't be for a chapter or two (maybe more) yet. Also, I'd imagine you'd have to be pretty creative to do stuff like that, and, quite frankly, the Pride think that they're fine as they are with their regular moves. However, as stated in the AN a couple chapters ago, I'm writing an OC fic (-_-' yes... I went there...) where the main character is much more likely to try out that type of experimentation. It helps that her favored attack is Shadow Claw. So, if you don't mind, I'd like to use your idea there. I will be posting that fic eventually, but you're not required to read it. I know OC fics aren't usually looked on favorably, but I'm already sixty pages in, so... why not. Yeah. Long review response is long.**

**So, this chapter's mostly fight scenes. I'm still trying to learn how to write pokémon fight scenes well, and it's... well, it's alright, I guess. Not terrible, but, sort of meh. Anyway, please let me know what you thought and how I can improve! Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own. Too lazy to write more.**

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><p>A piercing screech like a raptor's cry-<p>

Lightning crackled, white-hot bolts of electricity slamming into the ground in concentrated blasts of pure destruction-

Fire _roared_, before the world exploded into a cloud of heat and smoke-

There was a deafening _crack_ as the air was filled with searing heat and a beam of whitish-gold was called down from the heavens. Then-

Silence.

I stepped back, panting as dust filled the air. Long, conical black soot-stains scorched the earth, a symbol of the sheer _power_ in the other pokémon's attacks. Sparks danced across my fur, snapping and popping with residual power. Rubble crunched and shifted under my paws, ground still warm with heat from the enormous bolt of lightning I'd used as my finishing move. The scent of ozone permeated the air, and bits of static electricity made my fur stand up ramrod-straight.

There was no _way_ my opponent, a charizard, had survived that blast. She had to be fainted. I had seen her take a direct hit.

And if she wasn't, well…

Time for Round Two.

Slowly, the dust settled. My opponent was revealed in a crumpled heap on the ground, completely out cold. I grinned. _Finally_. I had thought that she wasn't ever going to go down.

The referee cleared his throat. "Winner, Harry Pride!" he announced to the crowd.

Cub grinned widely and returned me to my pokeball. From inside, I watched as he crossed the field to shake hands with his opponent, before returning to the waiting area with the other Trainers. Hermione, who was up next, fidgeted nervously.

"Don't worry. You'll be fine," Cub assured her as her name was called out onto the field. "Just stay calm, and don't overthink things. Good luck!" He flashed her a grin and a thumbs-up.

She nodded and took a deep breath, trying to assure herself that it would be fine. Then she raised her chin, steeled her resolve, and stepped out onto the field.

* * *

><p>"Amethyst, Psychic!"<p>

"Pidgeotto, Wing Attack!"

Amethyst's eyes glowed as Pidgeotto shrieked and dove, wings flaring white with power. An in invisible force gripped the avian pokemon just long enough to divert her course, away from her target- and straight into the ground. I winced in sympathy as Pidgeotto hit the dirt beak-first, plowing in at full speed.

I winced as dust flew and feathers crumpled, sending up a sandy brown cloud that hovered lazily before settling. Ouch. That definitely looked like it _hurt._ And… yup, Pidgeotto was out. That was another one down, and… what was it, three left? Yeah, three. Amethyst looked tired, though, tail dragging a bit and lithe frame battered after taking down three pokemon all in a row.

Hermione shouted encouragement and the espeon made a valiant attempt to stand straighter, eyes determined. Her opponent gnashed his teeth, before sending out his fourth pokemon.

"Go, Butterfree!" he yelled.

Cub sighed. "And there she goes," he muttered under his breath. "That's the end of it. Amethyst is weak to Bug-types, and she's already pretty tired."

Neville glanced sidelong at his friend. "Really? How do you know for sure that Hermione is going to lose?"

Cub waved a hand at the two pokemon, now battling it out on the field. Unfortunately, Butterfree was winning. "Look at them. First off, Butterfree's got a type advantage. Secondly, she can fly, and Amethyst can't. Lastly, Amethyst just took down three pokemon in a row; not an easy feat. Butterfree, on the other hand, is completely fresh and at full strength.

"What's more, that Trainer is still on his journey. He is actively traveling, training, and battling every day. Hermione, though, doesn't do that. She's not focusing on becoming a battler, she's focusing more on school and caring for her pokemon. The other Trainer also clearly has more experience. I'd say that he's had that Butterfree for at least a year or two, longer than Hermione's had Amethyst."

Neville nodded. "Well, when you put it that way, it does seem kind of obvious," he acknowledged Then he winced, and said, "Not that I don't have faith in Hermione, but-"

"-But, logically, you know she's not going to win," Cub finished. "I know. It sounds mean, but it's true."

On the field, Butterfree came in with a Silver Wind. Amethyst was knocked off her feet and sent sprawling, landing on her side and laying still. She didn't get up, and the referee declared her unable to battle.

Neville grimaced. "Crud. This means that I'm up next, doesn't it?"

Cub nodded. "Yup."

Hermione gathered Amethyst into her arms and stroked her gently as they walked off the field, assuring the espeon that she'd done well. Once she got back to her friends, Cub handed her a Potion and said that for her first time in a serious battle, she'd done really well.

"Thank you, but I still need more training," Hermione said with a frown. "I almost froze up in the beginning, and I should have had Amethyst use Psybeam instead of Confusion against the Wartortle, and-"

Cub cut her off with a laugh. "Relax," he chuckled. "You did fine. You know what went well and what didn't, so all you need to do is work on the parts that didn't go so well for next time. Besides, you managed to take out half his team. That's pretty good for a rookie Trainer."

The announcer called out Neville's name, and he gulped nervously. "Oh, dear," he murmured quietly. Cub only laughed, and clapped him on the back encouragingly.

"Don't worry. You'll be fine," he said. "Good luck, and remember- it can't go worse than my first battle!"

"That was totally different!" Neville argued, but went out looking just a bit more confident anyway.

I snickered a bit at the memory of Cub's first battle. I knew that he hadn't been referring to his first Trainer battle, using the Pride, but his first battle as a ninetails- against, of all things, a _blastoise_.

Needless to say, it had been a disaster.

Neville's opponent, a tall girl with brown hair and a baseball cap perched on her head, grinned and threw out her first pokemon.

It was a swampert. The _heck?_ That was a _Hoenn_ starter. Was she from Hoenn? Strange. Then what was she doing all the way out in Kanto?

Cub smirked, then cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, "SWAMPERT'S A WATER/GROUND-TYPE!"

All of a sudden, Neville looked infinitely more confident. He released Root, who stomped his feet and snorted intimidatingly- and the other Trainer paled.

I couldn't quite hear what she said, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't anything good.

* * *

><p>Neville's expression was gloomy. "I lost," he said glumly. "And I didn't even defeat as many pokemon as Hermione did."<p>

The bushy-haired girl patted his back consolingly. "It's okay. That was just bad luck that her second pokemon was a camerupt. You still defeated her swampert, and that was pretty strong."

"Yeah, but I had a huge type advantage," he pointed out.

"So did Camerupt," Cub interjected. "You couldn't have predicted that. She's from Hoenn; all her pokemon aren't found here in Kanto. You didn't know how to defend against them."

Neville brightened up a bit, and Root rumbled in a comforting way. We were out on the edges of the Tournament area at the moment, taking advantage of the twenty-minute intermission between the preliminaries and the semi-finals. Since this was their first time trying it out, the Tournament had three rounds- preliminaries, semi-finals, and finals. The preliminaries had just finished, and out of the three friends, only Cub had made it to the semi-finals.

Amethyst sighed, ears drooping. "Well, at least I defeated a few pokemon," she said.

I snorted and nudged her gently with one paw. "Hey, that's still pretty good. Don't feel bad."

"Thunder's right. You single-handedly took out half his team," Devil added. "That's nothing to be ashamed of."

She did look a little happier at that.

A breeze swirled through the clearing, and the sky briefly darkened as a cloud passed over the sun. Draca shivered a bit, and coiled in on herself to conserve warmth. "Ach. I hate winter," she muttered.

Just then, the PA system rigged up over the stadium crackled. An announcer's voice boomed out amidst white noise and feedback. "ALL CONTESTANTS IN THE WINTER TOURNAMENT, PLEASE RETURN TO THE ARENA FOR THE SEMI-FINAL ROUNDS," it said, repeating several times before clicking off.

Cub pulled out our pokeballs. "Well, I guess that means we gotta head over now," he said casually as we returned to our capsules in flashes of red light. "Come on, I want to win this thing!

* * *

><p>From inside my pokeball, I watched as Cub's opponent opened with a pidgeotto. I grinned, eager to fight, knowing that I would be sent out against this bird. Sure enough, my world shifted as Cub released me- and I burst onto the field with a massive roar, Intimidate ability cutting Pidgeotto's attack stat.<p>

"Thunder, use Spark!" Cub yelled.

"Pidgeotto, dodge with Agility!"

A glowing ball of electricity appeared between my open jaws as Pidgeotto blurred into motion, shooting across the arena in a zigzag pattern that made it annoyingly difficult to get a hit. So I held my attack, waiting until she stopped.

After a minute, she did, pausing a hundred feet up in the air with wings extended and already charging power for an Aerial Ace. But I didn't hesitate and launched the Spark, then a Thunderbolt as well for good measure.

She dodged the first one. She didn't dodge the second.

Lightning crackled as she shrieked and fell, sparks popping and dancing across her feathers. Cub grinned, wide and satisfied. "Thunder, keep blasting her!" he commanded.

I obliged, launching another bolt of electricity and maintaining it this time, continuously pumping energy into the attack. Pidgeotto was frozen in place now, helpless to do anything but take damage.

After a minute, I stopped, and she fell. The air was sharp with the scent of ozone, now, and tiny wisps of smoke curled up from blackened feathers. All in all, the entire thing probably hadn't taken more than ten minutes. It wasn't that Pidgeotto wasn't strong, no- she just had a really bad type matchup.

Cub's opponent gritted his teeth and recalled his pokemon. Then he threw out another pokeball, shouting, "Go, Graveler!"

I felt myself dissolve and condense in a flash of light as Cub pulled me out, releasing Spike in my place. Back in the confines of my pokeball, I settled back to watch the rest of the battles, waiting for when my Trainer needed me again.

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><p>Draca roared, whiplike tail thrashing as she spiraled up, up, up- and the gem at her neck flashed a bright, sapphire blue as stormclouds gathered and a cold wind howled through the arena. The sky darkened. Rain began to fall in pale sheets, soaking the poor vulpix that still earthbound to the bone. She tried to spit an Ember attack at Draca, but they didn't get very far before sputtering and winking out in wet clumps of ash.<p>

The crowd shifted as people hurriedly pulled jackets over their heads and tried to cover up exposed skin. Then Draca used the rain to dive and spin in wide spirals like the ribbons of a dancer, charging up an Aqua Tail as centrifugal force added momentum and power.

Vulpix tried to leap aside. She didn't quite make it. Draca roared in victory, and the storm eased away.

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><p>Devil was sent up against another houndoom, recently evolved if the slight awkwardness in its limbs and the young look to its face was any indication. The dirt went from soft almost-mud to baked earth, rock-hard and brick-solid as the two canines matched each other flame for flame. But in the end, Devil was the one with more firepower, and his opponent barely managed to get away with minor burns.<p>

Then the battle went from long distance to close up as the hounds switched to physical blows, snapping and snarling as they grappled. Houndoom sank his teeth into Devil's shoulder with Bite, even as Devil retaliated with its more powerful version- Crunch. Then Devil used a close-range Dark Pulse that served to blast the other pokemon away.

Houndoom used Smog, discharging a thick cloud of noxious purple gas. Devil, who hadn't been expecting that, quickly responded with a Flamethrower to burn it away- but he wasn't quite fast enough, and it minorly poisoned him.

Cub knew he had to end it fast, then.

He ordered Devil to use Inferno.

Fire _roared,_ a conflagration of orange-red and crimson-gold pouring from Devil's jaws as it raced into the arena and clawed with grasping talons at the sky. I could feel the heat even from inside my pokeball, and suddenly felt exceedingly thankful that the powerful Dark Pokemon was on our side.

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><p>Flare hissed menacingly as he reared up on his tail, hood wide open as he glared down at the bellossom that was his opponent. Its Trainer promptly cried at it to use Mega Drain.<p>

Flare disagreed, and struck with a lightning-fast Fire Fang. But Bellossom was nimble and acrobatic, seemingly having expected the attack as she backflipped over the strike and used Sunny Day. The residual clouds from previous battles cleared away to reveal blindingly bright blue sun and sky, which Bellossom drank in like water.

Then, without needing charge time thanks to the Sunny Day, she used Solar Beam.

Flare swore, and coiled in on himself with Protect- which barely withstood the power of Bellossom's Solar Beam, but allowed him to block the attack and retaliate under the resulting dust cloud with an Ice Fang. Bellossom, already severely injured after taking the Fire Fang and using such a powerful attack as Solar Beam, fainted.

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><p>By the end of the Semi-Finals, only six Trainers remained. During the Finals, two prominent contenders emerged- Cub, and Damien. Since this was a new event, and fairly unknown, most of the competitors weren't incredibly strong. If I had to guess, I'd say that most of them had two or three badges at most.<p>

Although Damien was on the slightly lower end of that scale, he was still a powerful Trainer who had the potential to be great. It helped that he'd also acquired a full party of pokemon, a good, balanced team from what we'd seen of his battles so far.

His chimchar was now a monferno. There was a luxio, close to evolving from the looks of it. A roselia, a sneasel, a staravia, and a buizel rounded it out. They were all fairly strong, and well-trained. The staravia, luxio, and buizel seemed like heavy hitters, while the sneasel and roselia leaned more towards speed and special attacks rather than physical.

I couldn't wait to battle him.

(Though, for some reason, that luxio of his looked familiar…)


	9. The Winter Tournament- Part Three

**HUGE THANKS to Krazyfanfiction1, ElementalMaster16, Wishfull-star, DragonClaw827, Olaf74, FANatic Writer, ultima-owner, and Legolas Dragon Rider for reviewing!**

**To Krazyfanfiction1: Aw, thanks for your confidence in me! Unfortunately, I can't promise that it'll live up to your expectations, because it's hard to write a good OC fic (at least for me), but I'll try. At the moment, the fic is roughly a hundred pages long and not even halfway done... well, at least now you know it'll be lengthy. Thanks for reviewing!**

**To Legolas Dragon Rider: Ooh, good idea. It will most likely be used in some form, probably slightly modified, for Year Three. Thanks!**

**So, Happy Holidays to all, and to all a good night! Enjoy the extra-long chapter! It's pretty much only Damien's battle, but, well, I figured that it was long enough already. Dang, the Tournament is lasting longer than I thought...**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Pokémon. **

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><p>Glider hissed, swooping and diving as he and Damien's staravia fought their battle in the skies. While Staravia held the advantage, not having to rely on updrafts and air currents nearly as much as Glider, he still had an edge due to greater experience.<p>

"Glider, use Thunder Fang!"

And, yeah, there was that too.

The gliscor bared his fangs and struck, sparks dancing as lightning crackled through his jaws. Although, he didn't quite score a direct hit, he did manage to clip Staravia's wing, which was enough for the electricity to make the jump from fangs to feathers.

The avian pokemon screeched as static popped and her muscles locked up, freezing her in place for one brief moment until she shook it off. It was too late, though, since her momentary pause had given Glider just enough time to attack with an Ice Fang and then another Thunder Fang before she could avoid it. Once Staravia took the pair of super effective hits, she was down.

"Nice job," Cub complimented with a grin as Glider swooped down to perch on his outstretched arm.

Glider preened. "Thank you."

Damien let out a small sigh as he recalled Staravia, but didn't seem to be deterred. "Well, that was only my first pokemon!" he called out, eyes gleaming. He palmed a second pokeball, and threw it. "Go, Sneasel!"

Cub smirked. "Spike!"

The sneasel and the lucario burst out into the field almost at the same time. Immediately the size difference was evident, though Spike didn't let it fool him as he knew that Sneasel would have the advantage of speed.

"Sneasel, use Slash!" Damien shouted.

Sneasel grinned, wild and fierce as she blurred into motion. My eyes widened. I had known that she would be fast, but- d***, she was _fast!_

Spike almost couldn't dodge in time, and it was only his Aura sensing ability that gave him enough warning to leap up, high above the attack as it whistled through the air where he'd just been.

"Metal Claw!" Cub yelled in return. Spike growled, shining steel gauntlets forming over his paws as wicked claws over six inches long extended out. He then blurred into motion himself, powerful attack flashing in the light as he swiped at Sneasel. Scoring a direct hit, the impact tossed her into the air where she flipped and managed to land on her feet, though not without taking significant damage.

"Don't let him get close! Keep your distance!" Damien commanded. Sneasel nodded, before vanishing with a gust of wind. She was moving so fast she was leaving after images, so Spike was having a hard time keeping track of her pattern.

Cub frowned. "Spike's gotta use an area-wide attack..." he muttered to himself, before nodded. "D***. Even if it's not totally ready, we gotta use it." He stared out across the field, expression determined. "Spike! Use Dragon Pulse!"

The lucario paused in confusion. "But it's not ready!"

"That's okay, just try it! We only need to slow her down!" Cub replied.

Spike rolled his eyes. "If you say so," he muttered, before opening his jaws wide. A deep, royal purple light began to grow in the back of his throat, before-

Sneasel yelped in surprise as a wide pulse of draconic power rippled out across the field, with Spike at its center. It was weak, and not yet perfected, but it was enough. Sneasel halted, even if for only a second, and that gave Spike the opportunity to move in with Close Combat.

After that, Sneasel didn't stand a chance.

Damien smiled, gathering Sneasel up in his arms. "You were great," he said earnestly. "You had a really bad matchup, but you did really well!"

"I was impressed," Spike added as he shook a bit of dust off his coat. "She's very fast, and quite strong. She's going to make one heck of a battler someday."

Cub relayed Spike's words to Damien and Sneasel. Both looked pleased, though Sneasel passed out right afterward. "Thanks," Damien said to Spike.

Spike nodded, before vanishing in a flash of red. Cub clipped his pokeball back onto his belt, before sending out another. "Devil!"

"Buizel!" Damien said. The otter-like pokemon burst out with an eager cry, eyes narrowed aggressively as he stared down Devil.

"Ha! I've got a type advantage!" Buizel crowed triumphantly.

Devil growled as his muzzle twisted into a canine grin, hackles rising. "Hey, don't get cocky!" he barked.

Cub acted first, this time. "Devil, Thunder Fang!"

Damien gaped as the houndoom lunged, sparks popping. "What the- do _all_ your pokemon know that move or something?"

"Not _all_ of them," Cub laughed. "Just… um…" he counted on his fingers, then blinked. "Huh. Four. That's a good two-thirds of the team."

The younger boy groaned in annoyance. "Oh, that's just _great_. Buizel, use Aqua Jet before Devil shocks you again!"

Buizel nodded, before crouching- and then exploding upwards as he suddenly became a water-propelled missile. Devil growled as he got splashed, then yelped as Buizel barrelled into him. The canine was knocked off his feet, drenched.

His opponent didn't let up, dispersing the shroud of water in favor of launching several Water Guns in quick succession. Devil rolled to his paws, narrowly avoiding the blasts, and released a Smog. The toxic grey-black gas billowed out in thick clouds, obscuring visibility and with a fifty-fifty chance of poisoning Buizel.

Unfortunately, that didn't happen, since Buizel stumbled out of the thick clouds coughing harshly but without the sickly purple tinge to his skin and fur that usually signified a poisoning. Devil was still inside, though, unaffected by his own attack. Cub and Damien both squinted, but were unable to catch a glimpse of the houndoom.

Then, an eerie Howl echoed out from the darkness. Buizel squeaked, eyes wide as he jumped in fear. He began to tremble, going down on all four paws as his tail tucked in and he edged towards the sidelines.

"Buizel! Shake it off!" Damien shouted, trying to encourage his pokemon.

Devil howled again, somehow making the sound bounce so that I couldn't pinpoint which direction it was coming from. A dark shape flitted through the black clouds, stirring up some of the gasses, and Buizel swung his head to follow it. But then it vanished, and everything was still.

Two seconds later, another shape- another specter- then, nothing.

The smog began to lift and dissipate. And Devil-

With an intimidating roar, he burst out of the shadows and clamped down on Buizel with a crackling Thunder Fang. Buizel screeched, thrashing wildly as electricity danced over his fur.

"Buizel!" Damien cried, worried and distraught.

Devil growled, and shook his head like a dog with a bone. Buizel thrashed again, but weaker now. After a moment, he stilled, and Devil dropped him to the ground. He hit the dirt in a limp heap, fur dusty and battered. Then, he vanished in a flash of red. Damien winced as he clipped the pokeball back on his belt, and Devil trotted over the Cub with a satisfied smirk on his face.

"Well, that was fun," he barked as Cub chuckled and leaned down to pat his head. He shook himself, spraying water everywhere.

Cub let out an affronted noise as he jumped back, wet splotches splattering his jacket. "Hey!"

Devil rolled his eyes, tail swinging lazily. "Sheesh. You're such a cat sometimes."

"_Panther,_" Cub reminded, "not cat. Panthers are cooler."

"I'll bet McGonagall would disagree," Devil muttered.

Instead of replying, Cub just opened up a pokeball and pulled back the canine. "Mutt," he chuckled affectionately.

Damien rolled his eyes. "I forgot how strange that feels, only getting half the conversation at a time," he remarked. Palming another pokeball, he then sent out his fourth pokemon. "C'mon, Roselia!"

"Get 'em, Flare," Cub smirked as he sent out the large cobra. Flare hissed, rising up on his tail as he swayed hypnotically from side to side.

Roselia, rather than being intimidated, held up her rose-hands and slid one foot back into what looked like the rough approximation of a boxer's stance.

"Roselia, use Toxic Spikes!" Damien yelled.

Roselia nodded and leapt into the air, scattering venomous purple spikes across the dirt. Flare recoiled, hissing angrily.

"Flare, Dig then Fire Fang!" Cub called out in response.

The reptile immediately dove, burrowing into the earth to avoid the spikes that he was particularly vulnerable to (due to his inability to actually leave the ground, having no feet or legs). Roselia paused, watching the ground warily as she tried to track Flare's location.

Then-

"Roselia, shoot Magical Leaf down the tunnel!" Damien commanded.

I paused. Well, that I hadn't expected. Magical Leaf never missed, and in the tunnel's narrow confines…

Roselia complied, and there was a muffled yelp of pain that filtered through the dirt. Then the ground rumbled, and Flare burst out with Fire Fang primed and a stream of glowing leaves quite literally on his tail. Coiling around in that boneless way only serpents could do, he snapped at the leaves and let the fire burn them to ash before whipping around to sink his fangs into Roselia.

She screeched in pain, thrashing around, but Flare had managed to wrap his coils around her body to pin her in place as he struck again with repeated Fire Fangs. Beneath the onslaught of super effective hits, Roselia quickly succumbed.

Flare reared in victory.

* * *

><p>"Monferno, Mach Punch!"<p>

"Draca, Aqua Tail!"

"Protect yourself with Flame Wheel!"

Water lanced out in a swift arc, before exploding into hissing steam as it clashed with a spinning wheel of red-orange fire. Draca growled, lashing her tail like a whip as more water scythed out against the flames. More steam rose, in puffy white clouds that fogged up my pokeball's surface and made it hard to see out. I squinted for a moment, before my eyes flashed gold and my x-ray vision turned on. Suddenly I could see _everything,_ the solid objects appearing as transparent outlines in my sight.

Through the eddying clouds of steam, Monferno lashed out with Close Combat. Draca managed to evade most of them through a combination of aerial contortions and flying up too high for Monferno to reach or jump. Then she retaliated with a Twister, sending the rushing winds to roar and howl at the Fire/Fighting-type. He promptly spat Embers at it, which then led to an impromptu Fire Spin- that moved and whirled like it had a mind of its own.

And it was still heading straight for Monferno.

HIs eyes widened. "Oh, cr-!"

Damien winced as his pokemon was tossed into the air, then nailed with a powerful Aqua Tail. Repeatedly. "Darn. We gotta work more on _thinking ahead,_" he muttered as Monferno landed quite unceremoniously on the dirt.

He staggered to his feet, looking disoriented and dizzy. "Ow," he said with a wince.

Draca was merciless. After waiting a moment to gather more water from nearby melted puddles of snow, she then launched several Aqua Tails in quick succession. To Monferno's credit, he did manage to dodge most of them.

Unfortunately, "most" did not mean "all".

* * *

><p>"Hey, Damien!" Cub called out over the field. "I've taken out all but one of your team without losing a single pokemon. What'cha gonna do now?"<p>

Damien frowned. His fingers ran across the top of his pokeballs, and he considered his last option for a moment before accepting that yes, there was no way he could win. But he could, however, still try anyway. "Go, Luxio!"

The second-stage pokemon burst out, letting out a roar of challenge. I frowned. For some reason, he looked so familiar...

Cub grinned. "Alright, then. Let's fight fire with fire! Go, Thunder!"

I felt a brief warping sensation as I broke down on an atomic level into a beam of light, reforming at full size on the field. I stood larger than my opponent by a good foot and a half, and used my Intimidate ability to full effect as I glared down at the smaller Electric-type. He glared back, nervous but undaunted.

"I may not win, but I'm going to try my hardest to take you down!" he vowed, hackles rising and bristling.

I tilted my head to the side, tail flicking as electricity sparked on my claws. "Well, at least you're realistic," I commented. "You look familiar... do I know you? What pride are you from?"

"The Lightningstorms, of the Great Northern Forests," he replied proudly as his chest puffed out and he raised his chin.

I looked at him curiously. Luckily, Cub was listening to the entire exchange, and was telling Damien not to start the battle quite yet. "Oh? Interesting. That's where I'm from too, y'know. Who is your sire?" I narrowed my eyes a bit, trying to pin down his featured and match them to the members of my old pride that I remembered. "Sparktooth? No, that's not it. You have the 'Claw eyes..."

Then, all of a sudden, it hit me. I knew why he looked so familiar now. "Wait. Is your sire Thunderclaw?"

Luxio paused, now looking a bit confused. "Yes. Why?"

"Holy great Arceus. My idiot of a brother actually _procreated,_" I muttered, stunned. "I am so, so, sorry. Tell me, is he still more scatterbrained than a starly?"

"I- what? What are you talking about? Your _brother? What?_" Luxio demanded, tone a mixture between bewildered and indignant. "My father is not an idiot!"

I raised an eyebrow. Or, well, the area above my eye where an eyebrow would've been. "Really? Because he sure was an idiot when we were cubs. Oh, did he finally get Strikecloud to notice him? He's been mooning over her ever since we were shinx, you know. And you have her face. Wait, is Strikecloud your mother?" I asked, now incredibly curious. If this luxio really was my nephew, then I wanted news on how my family was doing.

Meanwhile, he just looked horribly confused. "Wait, wait. You're my _uncle?_" he asked, incredulous and shocked.

I rolled my eyes and sat down, wrapping my tail around my paws. "Yes, I believe so. Now answer the question. Did Thunderclaw finally get Strikecloud- though, honestly, I don't know what she would ever see in him -or did he find someone else who actually tolerates him?"

Luxio copied my actions, hind legs folding under him as he hit the ground with a dull _thump_. He blinked, face stunned. "Um... yeah. My mom is Strikecloud. So, my dad is your brother?"

"Yes," I replied. "Seriously though, is he still an idiot? Because he was the only one of my siblings who ever managed to get themselves stuck in a _knothole,_ so if he managed to snag someone like Strikecloud, I want to know how."

Luxio blinked. "Wait, a _knothole?_ Like, in a tree?"

I sighed as my ears flicked, sagging a bit with exasperation at the memories. "Oh, yes. A knothole. Halfway up a tree, ten feet off the ground. I don't even know how he did it, or how he fit into that thing. But it took me, both of our parents, and a helpful beautifly to get him out. Even then, he was stuck in there for almost an hour."

"Wow," Luxio said. "Y'know, Mom's mentioned the Knothole Incident sometimes, but every time I ask her about she just starts laughing and Dad gets really embarrassed. He's still really ditzy sometimes, though. Once, when he was teaching me how to hunt, he fell into the river and scared off all the fish."

"Sounds like him," I agreed. "But how'd he get _Strikecloud_ as a mate? I know he liked her, but so did just about everyone else in our generation. Why him? We all thought for sure that she was going to pick Sparkfang, or Quickpaws, or something."

Luxio shrugged. "I honestly have no idea. I never really asked."

"Okay. Do you have any siblings?" I questioned instead. "Thunderclaw always told me that if he had cubs, at least one of them would be named Thundercloud or Strikeclaw, to mix his and Strikecloud's names. And he wanted at least one daughter."

Now Luxio looked sort of embarrassed. "Erm, well, they named _me_ Strikeclaw," he admitted, "but everyone thinks that they should've named my second younger sister that instead, because her claws are unusually long. I have two younger sisters and a twin brother, and he's the one named Thundercloud. Except that one of my sisters is really airheaded and always zones out. She can never focus, and she's always getting into trouble."

"Great Arceus, there's three more of them," I muttered to myself. "And apparently, it's even genetic. You have my condolences for carrying the 'stupid gene'."

Meanwhile, Cub had started snickering. Then chuckling. Then full-on laughing, doubled over as he listened to the entire conversation.

Luxio- no, Strikeclaw -glanced at him curiously. "Um... is your Trainer alright?" he asked, confusion evident as Cub repeated the phrase "'stupid gene'" to himself.

I flicked my tail dismissively. "Eh, don't worry. He's always like that. He can talk to pokemon, y'see, so he's heard our entire conversation. Didn't you notice when he started chuckling at the Knothole Incident?"

Strikeclaw froze. "Wait, _what?!_"

On the other side of the area, Damien was gazing at Cub with concern. "Um, are you okay?"

Cub let his laughter subside, though he couldn't keep a grin off of his face. "I'm fine, I'm fine," he chuckled. "Heh, 'stupid gene'. By the way, did you know that your luxio is Thunder's nephew? Oh, and his name is actually Strikeclaw. Also, apparently his father- Thunder's brother, hey that rhymed -is an idiot. A _knothole?_ Seriously?"

"Yes, yes. I'm glad you find my brother's misadventures amusing," I replied dryly. "Although, they sure weren't funny all those years ago when I had to bail him out of _every. Single. One._ Sometimes, I _really _hated being the oldest child."

"I know the feeling," Strikeclaw grumbled. "About a week before Damien caught me, Starspark ended up stuck in a _bidoof den._ While the bidoof was _still in it._ _How_ did she even _do_ that?"

"Reminds me of the time Thunderclaw got himself trapped inside a trash can when he was a shinx," I responded wryly. "The entire thing was three times his height. I don't even know how he got in there in the first place."

Behind us, the two humans were now discussing something that I didn't bother to pay attention to. Before Strikeclaw and I could continue, though, the referee stepped forwards with a slightly annoyed look on his face.

"Excuse me, but we really should start the battle now," he said to our Trainers. The two boys broke apart from their conversation, and Cub rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Oh, right. Sorry," he replied apologetically. "Sorry, Thunder. You guys can catch up more later, okay?"

"Fine," I sighed as I lifted myself to my paws. Damien said something similar to Strikeclaw, before retaking his place on the opposite side of the field.

Strikeclaw jumped to his paws, looking eager to battle. "Mom and Dad always said that you were the strongest in their age group," he said excitedly. A sly grin stole its way across his muzzle. "But maybe you're too old now. Are you sure you've still got bite, old lion?"

I growled playfully. "Oh, that's it, little cub. Now it's _on_."

As if that was a signal, Cub chose that moment to start. "Thunder, use Crunch!" he cried.

I snarled, fierce joy twisting through my chest as adrenaline coursed through my veins. Leaping at Strikeclaw with fangs bared as they glowed powerfully, I wondered for a moment if my nephew had inherited his father's mediocre fighting skill… or his mother's deadly, lightning-quick grace.

As he instantly retaliated with a blindingly fast Crunch of his own, I was thrilled to see that it was the latter.

Oh, this was going to be _good_.


	10. Tournament Conclusion and Heliopaths

**HUGE THANKS to Krazyfanfiction1, Seas and Shadows (twice!), Wishfull-star, ultima-owner, LDR, Olaf74, ElementalMaster16, Tristi Lynne, Nayeri, and Story Stalkers for reviewing!**

**To Krazyfanfiction1: Hehe, whoops, you're right... erm, well, let's pretend that focusing an attack from the paws is a little more difficult than from the mouth, because the mouth is connected directly to the source of power that fuels all pokemon attacks (which, according to my made-up anatomy, is somewhere in the core area). So, beginners find it easier to use a Beam, Pulse, or Ball attack from the jaws. It's easier to control from the paws or other external limbs, simply because of dexterity issues, but... yeah, that's my answer that I literally just pulled out of nowhere after reading your review.****(Truth is, I was just too lazy to go back and change it. I know, I'm lame.) Thanks for reviewing!**

**To Seas and Shadows: Whoa, near-drowning! I'm glad you're okay now! I almost drowned while writing a tube once, except that it was being pulled behind a speedboat on a lake. I now refuse to ever do that with him as the driver again. Thank goodness for lifejackets. XD Thanks for reviewing!**

**To LDR: Aw, I'd be so flattered! I know, luxray are awesome, right? So cool. I wish I had one. Thanks for reviewing!**

**To Nayeri: Oh, oops! It must have slipped my mind... shoot. I'll go back and fix it after I post this chapter. Sorry! I'll try not to make the mistake again. Thanks for reviewing!**

**Note: I'm a little sick right now, and a good chunk of this chapter was written while I was half-asleep and suffering from a cold, so that's why it may seem a little... weird. If you find anything off, please let me know!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Pokémon or Harry Potter. Or any combination thereof.**

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><p>Lightning sparked, white-gold beams of pure energized plasma flying everywhere. The ground shook and shrapnel flew, as two lions roared and grappled.<p>

"I see you've inherited your mother's speed," I grinned as sparks popped and danced over my unsheathed claws.

Strikeclaw grinned back, tail flicking as rubble crunched and shifted beneath his paws. "Dad was right. You really _are_ tough," he complimented in reply.

"Good to know they haven't forgotten about me," I smirked as Strikeclaw leapt with a powerful roar. I hopped to the side, rearing up and turning to slash at him as he went by. He tried to twist away, but didn't quite make it and let out a yowl of pain as my claws raked down his side.

I growled, coming back down to all fours and darting forwards to latch onto his shoulder with a Crunch. Strikeclaw snarled, and I was blasted away by an explosion of lightning. Rolling to my paws, I dashed sideways as a Thunderbolt pulverized the ground in an explosion of dirt and stone- Sparks met and clashed midair, as light flashed in blinding bursts of heated power- his fangs latched onto my tail, and I whirled as my paws swept his legs out from under him-

Thunderbolts crashed in deafening explosions, as I manipulated the charged blasts of power with pinpoint accuracy. Since we were both of the same type, the attacks themselves wouldn't do much, but they did serve as effective distractions. Strikeclaw was forced back, blasts of lightning pulverizing the ground all around him. Even if the attacks didn't hit, the shrapnel did, and that was effective in itself.

Then the luxio's eyes narrowed, and he paused for a moment before-

Damien's voice somehow managed to cut through the sounds of explosions and battle. "Wild Charge!"

Strikeclaw grinned, fangs bared as his entire body began to glow. I paused for a moment, briefly confused. I hadn't heard of this attack before-

Suddenly, my nephew kicked off the ground and began to sprint across the arena towards me. A glowing aura of electricity enveloped him, sparking and crackling as his paws moved so fast they were little more than blurs. Eyes widening in surprise, I couldn't react fast enough to dodge as he tackled me head-on. We went sprawling, and I winced as I felt my body flare with pain. The static made a valiant attempt at seizing up my muscles, but I forced it away with a burst of my own electricity and rolled to my paws.

"What," I groaned, trying to ignore the protesting twinge of my ribs as they throbbed dully, "in the name of Arceus was that?"

Strikeclaw smirked, muzzle curling in satisfaction. "Wild Charge," he answered. "It's my latest attack. Like it?"

"Felt like you smashed Take Down and Discharge together into one move," I informed him as I rolled one shoulder to make sure it still had a full range of movement. There was some pain as I stretched it back, but nothing too bad.

"Yeah, well, that's pretty much what it is," Strikeclaw admitted. His tail lashed as he crouched, preparing to spring again.

I eyed him carefully, gauging whether or not he would be able to pull that off again. Perhaps, but it was unlikely. That seemed like an extremely power-draining, if quite devastating, attack.

I really, _really_ wanted to learn it.

As if by some unspoken signal, we both rose up on our hind paws and swiped with heavy paws like a couple of boxers. Strikeclaw connected more often than not, finding it easier to balance with his lighter form. But I leaned in and used my forepaws to push down on his shoulders, taking advantage of my greater height. I yanked my paws to the side with a _twist-_ he stumbled, falling heavily on his side- then he managed to drag me down, and we wrestled together on the dirt.

The two of us broke apart for a moment, then attacked again. At this point, I was winning. I was older, bigger, and more experienced. I knew how to use my size to my advantage, and although my nephew was fast- well, so was I.

Lightning clashed again, sparks flying as white claws crackled with static. Strikeclaw tried to get in close, to duck under and then ram his head up into my soft underbelly, but I whirled- jaws snapped- and he yowled, ripping his ear away from my teeth.

I spat out a chunk of torn fur, snarling as I launched myself at my nephew. He tried to move aside, but I had anticipated that and landed on my toes- spun sideways- and leapt into him. We went sprawling, a fierce tumble of claws and teeth and electrically-charged fur.

Golden-white bolts were snapping off of both of us now, wild and uncontrolled as adrenaline and static coalesced into pure energy. By some unspoken agreement, we tried to rein it in; keep it confined, but if there was one thing about lightning, it was that it was _power._ It fought and bucked like it had a life of its own, and as the thunder boomed deafeningly it was all we could do to ensure it stayed away from the crowd.

Damien yelled something, and Cub yelled back, but neither of us heard it over the explosions and the ringing in our ears. Strikeclaw bit down on my leg, and I dug my claws into his side, and-

Suddenly the world was flipping, upside-down and then right side-up and then-

Then I had him pinned, standing over the luxio as my claws rested atop his throat. Both of us were panting hard, and I could feel my body tingling with exhilaration as the adrenaline began to ebb away. Oh, by Arceus, that had been _fun!_

"Ow," Strikeclaw gasped, tongue lolling out as he panted. "Okay. Okay. I give."

I grinned, and roared in victory as the crowd rose and bellowed alongside.

* * *

><p>"Aw, how cute," Draca cooed as she gazed fondly at the young teddiursa that Neville had just caught. Two days after the Tournament, and all four Trainers- Cub, Hermione, Neville, and Damien -had taken to hanging out whenever they weren't with their respective adult guardians.<p>

Damien and Cub's two magical friends had taken to each other fairly well. Obviously, Damien couldn't know that they were from another world, but that hadn't impacted their bonding. Upon learning that Hermione and Neville had never owned or caught another pokemon, however, Damien had immediately made it his goal to "teach" the pair how to be "real Trainers".

It had only taken about half an hour and two short battles for Hermione and Neville to be the proud Trainer of a young pidgey and teddiursa respectively. Cub and Damien were now helping them to bond with the new additions to their teams, and were telling them about how best to care for them. Neville had nicknamed his female teddiursa Ursa, and Hermione had nicknamed her male pidgey Avis.

Ursa was shy and unassuming, but had put up a surprisingly large fight before being captured. She had spirit, that one. And guts. It took a lot to stand up to a fully-grown, rather intimidating torterra like Root. Especially since Root was a good five or six times her size. Yes, Ursa was a spitfire. She just seemed to have trouble showing it. But we could work on that.

By contrast, Avis seemed to no trouble crowing his fighting spirit to the world. He clearly had great confidence in his abilities, and loved to battle with a sort of eager aggression that could become dangerous if he got cocky or overconfident. He hadn't been intimidated by Amethyst at all- though, granted, the size difference wasn't nearly so great as it had been between Ursa and Root. He hadn't been intimidated by the Pride, either, when he had been introduced.

A side-effect of that confidence, however, meant that he could get _annoying._

I growled as he fluttered around my head, ears flattening with irritation. I was trying to nap, and _he wasn't letting me! _If he interrupted my sleeping time _again,_ I was going to snap.

"I swear to Arceus, if you don't got away I will _eat you,_" I snarled as brown wings fluttered peskily in front of my muzzle.

A few inches away, Strikeclaw lifted his head from the grass and groaned in a long-suffering voice, "_Please_ do, Uncle. But if you don't, _I will._ I want to _sleep,_ Arceus-d***it!"

Devil, stretched out on the ground a couple feet away, rolled his eyes and snorted. "Lazybones."

Roselia, sitting daintily in a particularly lush patch of grass, nodded. "I agree. You two should be more active! Otherwise you're going to get fat and lazy lying around all the time!" she scolded.

I lifted my head, growling once at Avis to scare him away. It worked, and he hopped back a few steps before fluttering over to perch on Hermione.

Roselia huffed. "Aren't you listening?" she cried indignantly.

Strikeclaw's only response was to flick one ear dismissively. I was inclined to follow his example, and promptly decided to go back to sleep.

After all, it wasn't often you managed to find a warm, snow-free place to nap in the wintertime. I planned on taking full advantage of it.

* * *

><p>"Great Merlin, Harry, you're a local legend?" Neville asked blankly, eyes wide with surprise.<p>

Cub chuckled sheepishly, shuffling his feet a bit. "Eh, well, a few people _may_ have caught a glimpse or two of my ninetails form a few times..." he admitted with a slight flush of embarrassment. "Well, okay, maybe more than a few times, but hey, _you_ try being stealthy when you have nine giant tails to lug around and very little experience on four paws! I kept getting my tails stuck in bushes and snagged on stuff!" he pointed out defensively.

Spike snickered at the memory. "Oh, yeah. It was actually really funny," he laughed. "Cub was trying to walk and stuff, but he kept tripping over his own feet and flailing around. And then he went out to explore and got two of his tails stuck in-"

"Hey, you promised never to mention that again!" Cub yelped indignantly. His cheeks flushed with embarrassment, as his friends exchanged puzzled looks.

"Okay… well, for those of us who don't understand pokemon speech, would you care to translate?" Hermione asked, looking pointedly at Cub.

"No, it's nothing," he replied quickly. "You don't need to worry about it."

Spike laughed, then turned to face the young wizard's two magical friends. Damien wasn't there at the moment, having been dragged off to some family function by his relatives Switching to human speech, Spike then began to eagerly wax eloquent upon Cub's various misadventures. Cub, for his part, simply groaned, buried his head in his hands, and retreated far, far, away.

A few seconds later, distant explosions sounded from the direction of the dojo. A flock of pidgey took flight, chattering angrily as smoke rose lazily from the treetops. I sighed. Sounded like Cub was provoking the electrode and voltorb again. Arceus-d***it, he _clearly_ hadn't learned from last time. Did he want to blow up half the forest or something?

_Then again,_ I reflected as Spike took a great deal of mischievous glee in expounding in _great detail_ all of Cub's various embarrassing exploits, _maybe some mass destruction is exactly what he's trying to achieve._

As a column of fire roared into the sky, I only sighed and shook my head wearily. At least Flare, Koga, and Aya were over there to keep an eye on him if things got too out of hand.

* * *

><p>Cub furrowed his brow as he sat by the hearth, twisting fire and magic together into an intricate lattice of… something. I honestly didn't know <em>what <em>he was doing, and I'm not even sure that he knew it either. But as the sparks flew and dancing flames glowed bright, he suddenly seemed to have some sort of breakthrough.

"Ah!" he cried, a grin breaking out across his face as the fire cradled between his palms suddenly went out. "I get it now!"

"Get what?" Hermione asked as she looked up from her book, a monstrous novel of epic proportions that made my brain hurt to even _think_ about reading. Yet, even though she had only gotten it a few hours ago, she was already halfway through. Great Arceus.

It was midafternoon on Christmas Day, and the entire dojo had been engulfed in a quiet little bubble of peace. There was a calm lull in the air, as people settled down from the initial craziness of gift-opening and gift-giving and gift-exchanging and actually went to _use_ the presents they'd been presented with.

Honestly, though, I'd slept through most of it. The Pride had spent Christmas Eve just hanging out, trying to convince Cub to actually _sleep_ instead of staying up to wait for Santa, who was really just Koga in a red and white suit- but for some reason, Cub had developed a tradition of staying up to try and catch him in the act. He hadn't succeeded yet, but it did make for some very entertaining fights. After all, how often did you see Ninja Santa fighting a short kid with a sword?

This year in particular had been quite memorable, I reflected as I mentally reviewed the events of the previous night. By some unspoken agreement, the two had never once used pokemon, magic, or any skills other than their own ninjutsu during that time. So, Cub had instead resorted to increasingly elaborate traps that he could spend days at a time rigging.

These traps ranged from a veritable minefield of flashbombs hidden under pressure-activated mats (which Koga had circumvented by crawling across the ceiling) to a maze and net of ninja wire (unfortunately, he had wire cutters). And those were just a couple of the early attempts.

Then a strangely sharp and high-pitched bark sounded, breaking me out of my thoughts. I swung my head around to look at the source, and found-

_Wait, what? What on Earth were those?_

Cub laughed, the loud noise attracting the attention of everybody else as he leaned back, examining his creations with a sort of satisfied pride. "_That's_ what I was missing," he crowed triumphantly. "A _spark!_"

Draca, coiled in a wide loop of sapphire scales, tilted her head to the side and blinked. "Are those... rapidash? Magmar? Weird sort of bizarre hybrid things?"

Cub grinned. "No, no, and yes," he replied.

On the floor in front of him, Cub had created a small group of six-inch tall, flaming, rapidash-magmar hybrid creatures. They had the general body structure of a rapidash, but were covered in a combination of red and yellow-orange scale-like things and the shingle-shaped parts from a magmar's arms. A flame pattern was spread across the creatures' flanks, but it flickered and moved so much that it actually looked like real fire.

Their heads, however, looked like a magmar's- if, however, it had been stretched out into a vaguely horse head-like shape and had a gleaming unicorn horn stuck between the two fiery lumps found on a magmar. They had the hooves, mane, and tail of a rapidash, flickering and dancing wildly in the light. But, honestly, I wasn't entirely sure how to describe them. They were... _strange,_ to say the least.

"Erm… Harry? What are those?" Hermione enquired, lowering her book as the creatures began to gallop in little circles around the floor. Everywhere they touched immediately burst into flames, so Cub- ever the problem solver -created a small flood that encompassed a large circular area roughly a yard or so in diameter. The things were confined to the circle, so instead of scorching the floor with every step, they simply created a lot of hot steam.

Cub looked up, grinning widely as he responded. "Heliopaths," he informed us. "According to Luna, the Ministry's got an army of them. I only really have her description to go on, though, so they may not be very accurate…" he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, looking for all the world like a philosopher pondering the meaning of life.

Neville blinked, gazing cautiously at the heliopaths as the steam began to fill the room with a slight haze. "Sorry, but- _why?_ Those creatures Luna talks about, you actually made models of one? Why?"

Cub looked a bit self-conscious, as the steam grew thick enough to start obscuring his body in an opaque white cloud. One of the heliopaths made a sort of neighing-bellowing-quacking sound, like a cross between a whinnying equine, an angry monster-thing, and a constipated duck.

I honestly felt torn over whether I should have broken out in hysterical laughter or simply stared in horrified fascination.

"They're Luna's Christmas present," Cub told us. "I couldn't figure out what to get her at school, and then the break came and I didn't have a way to reach her, but now I've finally got it. Scale models, of one of the coolest things ever- heliopaths! All I have to do is put them in a fire-proof tank, renew the charms and such to make them all permanent, and voila!" The young wizard swept out his hand in a grand fashion, grinning like a loon.

We all blinked. Stared at him in utter confusion. Realized he was serious. And came to the same, vaguely disturbing and/or sweet-in-a-kinda-sorta-maybe-really-weird-way conclusion at roughly the same time:

_Luna's gonna love it._


	11. Discoveries in the Room of Hidden Things

**Bleh, this is late... all I can say is that real life has been busy. Like always. Bleh. Sorry!**

**HUGE THANKS to ultima-owner, Krazyfanfiction1, Tristi Lynne, Wishfull-star, orion0905, Seas and Shadows, FANatic Writer, LDR, guest, ElementalMaster16, Angel Thera, and Hammer n' Nail for reviewing!**

**To Krazyfanfiction1: Theoretically yes, but it's very, _very_ difficult. It's sort of like doing two things at once (which isn't that hard for some people, but is quite difficult for me) except that both of them will explode messily and violently if you let your concentration drop for even a second. Especially with Dragon Pulse, since it uses Dragon-typed power- which, according to my headcanon, as the most difficult of powers for a non-Dragon-type pokemon to generate. **

**To LDR and guest: Aw, you guys think that this is a good crossover? Thanks! *flattered blush***

**Disclaimer: Ha. I wish.**

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><p>As expected, Luna was thrilled by the gift.<p>

"Oh, these are wonderful, Harry!" she gasped, eyes lighting up. "The legs are a bit long, and the horn is really curved rather than straight, but besides that, they're very accurate."

"Oh, great Arceus," I muttered to Devil as Cub placed a Flame-Freezing Charm so that she could pick them up, "imagine if those were real."

"Who says they aren't?" Amethyst asked practically, forked tail waving gently from side to side. "There's no evidence to disprove their existence. And we _do_ live in a place where magic is very, very, real."

"True," I allowed, inclining my head slightly to concede the point. "Though, I would have to wonder- if the Ministry does supposedly have an army of these, why didn't they use them against Voldemort? Even the strongest Death Eaters would have trouble standing up against _those,_ I'd imagine."

"Perhaps they were only acquired recently," Amethyst suggested. Her ears flicked as Avis fluttered around her head, only a slight narrowing of eyes giving away her annoyance.

"Perhaps," I replied.

A few yards away, Luna giggled as one of the heliopaths nuzzled her cheek affectionately. Cub chuckled, hands in his pockets and a satisfied expression on his face.

Glider, hanging down from the trees, fluttered down and landed quite conveniently on Avis, pinning him down with his wings as the pidgey squawked indignantly. However, since we were all disillusioned (Luna wasn't aware of pokémon yet, but I had a feeling she would be soon), it appeared to the naked eye like a blurred distortion in the air colliding with another distortion as they both went down.

I looked around, x-ray vision along with scent and hearing easily picking out the other pokémon scattered around on the grass. There was Spike, napping up in a tree, there was Draca, coiled on a large rock in a patch of sunlight, and there was Flare, napping in the grass beside her. Ursa was next to Spike in the tree, sitting on a neighboring branch that raised her up to be at nearly eye level with the lucario. Root, on the other hand, was half-buried by a mass of shrubbery, seemingly asleep as well. Unlike the others, he didn't need to be disillusioned- his natural appearance was all the camouflage he needed.

I let out a jaw-cracking yawn, feeling the warmth of the sun diffuse into my fur and sink into my bones. It was comforting, bringing a layer of drowsiness like a quilted blanket with it. I lay my head down on the grass and stretched out, glad for the charms that Cub had cast to make the clearing a little piece of summer- if only temporarily.

A few yards away, one of the heliopaths set the grass on fire. Cub stamped it out, then reinforced the Flame-Freezing Charm on that particular creature.

My eyes lazily tracked the faint distortions that showed Avis and Glider playing a small game of tag. It was almost cute, to tell the truth. Avis was trying, he really was, but he just wasn't fast enough or experienced enough to pose any sort of challenge.

Speaking of challenges, though…

Memories once again flashing back to my battle with Strikeclaw, I felt proud. I had been out of touch with my old pride for a long, long time. To see one of them again, after all these years- it was _amazing_. Even if he did make me feel old. Where had the time gone? I still found it hard to believe that my fluff-brained brother, barely a luxio last I saw him, had actually _grown up _and _had cubs of his own._ If anything, we all thought that _I_ would have been the one to settle down first.

_Heh. Fat chance, now that I've got Cub to look after,_ I thought to myself. _He's enough of a pawful in himself, what with his magic, prophecy, and future plans to defeat a Dark Lord._

Casting another glance at the young wizard, I held back a chuckle as Hermione, who had been sitting a little too close, yelped as one of the heliopaths nearly torched her book. Amethyst jerked forward, gem flashing in defense, but aborted the movement when she remembered that Luna was still in the dark about pokemon.

_"Dad'll be glad to hear from you,"_ Strikeclaw had said before he and Damien left. _"Him and Mom, they used to tell us all stories about when they were cubs all the time when we were little. You were in a lot of them. They'll be happy to know that you're okay."_

I sighed, resting my head on my paws as I relaxed in the grass. For some reason, I had been feeling oddly homesick lately. Perhaps, over the summer, I could try to visit my old pride. Cub would likely be traveling to Sinnoh to visit Damien and revisit the Pride's homeland again anyway. I'd have to remember to bring it up come summer break.

For now, though... I would take advantage of the momentary peace. Cub was occupied for the moment, anyway.

* * *

><p>For the first time in a long, long, while, I dreamed. Of sun-kissed fields under summer skies, of games and shadows beneath winter stars, of a family that was <em>happy<em> and _together_ with cubs underpaw and elders complaining about everything and giving wisdom in equal turns. With fighters and battlers and fierce guardians who protected us all, proud and strong as we roared with the power of thunder and lightning itself.

I dreamed, and I remembered. My days as a shinx, gamboling with my siblings in that carefree way all cubs seemed to have; evolving into a luxio, that sense of _power_ and _accomplishment_ as newfound strength coursed through my paws like a river bursting its banks-

"_Congratulations! First one of your littermates, huh? Good job!"_

"_Yeah, that's my big brother! You're so cool!"_

"_Just you wait, Swiftclaw. I'm gonna catch up in no time!"_

I had been so proud. This was what just about every pokemon who could evolve aspired to, after all- growing stronger, fighting more battles, evolving into a new and better form. And out of all the cubs my age, I had been the first.

Back then, my life had been content. I hadn't thought anything was ever going to change.

(Still… if things hadn't gone the way they did, I may not have met Cub.)

(And that… was something I wasn't willing to let go.)

(So I let my dreams stay dreams, and my memories were not dwelled on. I had a crazy human wizard-trainer to help take care of, after all. There was no such thing as _time off,_ so I had to take advantage of any rest I could get.)

(No use at all in speculating the _could-have-beens _and _maybe-ifs._ We got along just fine without them.)

* * *

><p>"Are you <em>sure<em> it's somewhere here?" Devil asked, nose twitching as he prowled through the seemingly endless maze of junk.

"Yes, I'm sure," Cub replied as he craned his neck in a futile attempt to peer over a large mahogany dresser. "I mean, I was sort of guessing about one being here before, but now that Spike and I have figured out how to isolate and identify the Aura signature of the horcrux in my head-"

"-we can use it to track down the other pieces," the lucario finished as he poked what appeared to be a teetering pile of ancient books.

"Unfortunately, that means that we need to postpone the appointment with the goblins, since we're not sure if we'll still be able to use this trick once the piece is out," Cub continued as he levitated a broken chair out of the way. "I'll have to remember to owl them, probably once we get out of here."

"Assuming we can even find the door after all this," I muttered as I carefully skirted around what looked suspiciously like a dried-up potions stain of dubious origins. "Great Arceus, this place feels _endless._ It's no wonder Amethyst and Root got stuck here for so long."

"I'm still wondering how that happened in the first place, though," Glider commented as he swooped over the top of a dusty shelf. Fluttering down to perch on Cub's head, he added, "We're actually really lucky that we even found them the first time. What if we hadn't? Then they would still be stuck here, waiting for the next person to stumble on this room and find them. Although… that brings up the question: how did they get here in the first place? Is Cub not the first trainer to come to Hogwarts? Are there other pokemon in this room somewhere, stashed in their pokeballs for who knows how long?"

Cub paused, eyes going wide. "Those… are actually good questions," he murmured to himself. "Hold on-" he waved his wand, brow slightly furrowed in concentration, and commanded loudly, "Accio pokeballs! Accio pokemon! Accio pokemon supplies!"

The Pride got pulled in towards him by a few feet, and I nearly fell as an invisible force suddenly yanked me towards Cub. Nothing else happened for a few seconds. Then, just as we thought that the spell had failed…

Then, there was a sudden rattling sound- wood creaked against wood- and then Cub jumped as a hundred flying objects from all over the room burst out from under piles of junk, inside cabinets, or from under stacks of random knickknacks. We all crowded in close as Cub hastily threw up a shield, just in time to block a veritable hail of flying objects.

"Alright, _how_ many pokémon things are really _in_ this place?!" Glider squawked, wings flapping as he tried to keep his balance. "I thought this world hadn't seen a trainer in centuries!"

"But this school is centuries old," Draca commented, flinching slightly as what appeared to be an empty Potion bottle bounced off the shield in front of her face. "Still, there must have been _at least _a three or four trainers to leave all these supplies. Question is, why didn't they come back for them?"

"Maybe for the same reason nobody else who dumped their junk in this room came back for it?" I hedged, as the rain of objects ceased with the final arrival of a dusty (and luckily empty) ultra ball. It bounced off the shield and landed on the floor with a sharp clatter, bumping into several items and a couple bags before coming to a stop.

Cub held the barrier for a few more moments before dropping it, just in case. When he was assured that no more objects were going to come flying at his face, he dispelled it and stooped down to sort through the various pokemon items and supplies heaped at his feet. The rest of us stepped forwards to help, and we quickly sorted everything into three rough piles on a cleared-out patch of floor: healing items, regular items (such as a soothe bell, a couple scarves, and an everstone), and everything else.

"Everything else" consisted of, essentially, the rest of the items that weren't meant for use on or for a pokemon. In that pile, we had a couple maps (Sinnoh region, both of them, oddly enough), what appeared to be a freakin' _foldup bike_ (like the ridiculously expensive ones they sold at stores that could work on rough terrain _and_ fit into a standard trainer's bag), and other assorted random things. Those included but were not limited to contest ribbons, a poffin case, a ring of keys, a pair of worn-out trainer's bags, and pokeballs of various makes.

Two of which, Cub found when he tested them, were actually _filled._

"Alright… then, whoever left these things here must've come through recently, if there are still two pokemon- four total, counting Amethyst and Root -alive and in good condition here," Cub stated as he stared at the blue shellos and haughty glameow that had just been released. "Within the last five to seven years, probably, since the equipment doesn't seem to have degraded too much… plus, these pokemon look perfectly fine. I mean," he muttered to himself, "pokemon _do_ go into a sort of stasis or healing sleep of some sort inside pokeballs… but how long can they last…? Aargh, I can't remember. Um," now Cub addressed the two newcomers, "how long were you two in your pokeballs for?"

The glameow ignored him, while the Shellos looked startled and moved forwards a few inches. "Hey, the human talks!" she gasped, though she seemed intimidated by the large, fully-evolved forms of the Pride, and noticeably reluctant to come any closer.

The glameow, on the other hand, sniffed and turned away, tail flicking. "Don't be silly, Shelly. He's a _human_. Ha, talking as if he expects us to respond," Glameow scoffed. "Why would it matter? He wouldn't be able to understand us anyway."

Cub frowned. "I do, actually, expect you to respond," he replied disapprovingly. Catching the feline's startled look, he arched an eyebrow and drawled, "_Yeah,_ I can understand you. It's a special trick of mine. So, yes, it does matter because unlike with most other humans, I can hear every word you say and _I know what you mean._"

Shellos- also known as _Shelly,_ apparently -froze. "So I _wasn't _imagining things!" she crowed triumphantly.

Glameow seemed struck dumb. "Wh- _what?!_"

I sighed as Cub restated the question. Great. Now that we had gotten sidetracked, I had a feeling that this could take a while…

* * *

><p>It wasn't until a couple days later that we actually found the horcrux itself. Before that, we had been rather occupied by working things out with Shelly the shellos and Prince the glameow. Unfortunately, they were marvelously unhelpful in determining how long they'd been in that room and why. They hadn't known how long it had been since there were no clocks or windows, and the last thing they remembered from the Pokemon World was climbing Mt. Coronet in search of one of the great Legendary Creation Trio of Sinnoh.<p>

Eventually, Cub realized that we weren't really going to get any more useful information from them, and went back to trawling the Room of Requirement (as it turned out to be called) for the horcrux.

As it turned out, that horcrux turned out to be Ravenclaw's Diadem, and also a formerly lost artifact that, by all rights, belonged to the Ravenclaw House as a whole (there being no living descendants that we knew of to claim otherwise).

Cub was now met with a dilemma. On one hand, he could simply destroy the d***ed thing. On the other hand, people had been searching for that diadem for _decades._ It was old, valuable, and one of the few things left that belonged to Rowena Ravenclaw herself.

Being part of the Ravenclaw House, this decision, to Cub, was fairly important.

"D'you think," he asked after staring at the diadem for a few minutes, "that there's any way to somehow- I dunno -exorcise the horcrux piece without breaking it or something?"

I shrugged. "Honestly? No idea. You could ask the goblins. They were setting up that ritual to get the piece out of you, so maybe they could set something up to get the piece out of that crown-thing instead. It's probably easier than getting something out of a living person, I'd imagine."

"True, true," Cub mused as he examined the diadem. It was still perched on the strange bust we had found it on, since Cub was- understandably -rather wary of touching a cursed object that held a frikin' piece of a wizard's _soul_.

Not only that, but Spike had also told us that it felt like a cesspool of malevolence and dark Aura to his senses, which didn't exactly endear it to us. He was standing the farthest away from it, now, keeping one eye on Cub and the other on Glider.

The gliscor, meanwhile, was fiddling around with what looked like a small leather harness with several tubes attached. He was trying to get it around his wings, but his pincers were making things rather difficult. Besides which, the design of the harness made me think it had actually been meant for an owl instead. Maybe it was a way for an owl to carry multiple letters at once or something.

Glider squawked in surprise as the leather suddenly snapped back in his face, buckles jingling as his wings flapped wildly in an attempt to regain balance. His tail lashed out and stabbed into what appeared to be a couch cushion, anchoring him in place as he steadied himself.

"Well, we can at least try," Cub muttered to himself as he experimental waved his hand, casting what I knew were supposed to be purification spells designed by monks and priests. He'd come across those in a book one day and decided to learn them, saying, in his words, "Why not?"

Yet, they elicited no response from the diadem. Useless.

Cub huffed a quiet sigh and pocketed his wand, staring at the horcrux for a moment before transfiguring a nearby set of ripped curtains into a thicker carrying cloth, which then wrapped itself around the diadem so that Cub could transport it safely. "I guess I'll send them a letter after I put this away somewhere more hidden," he said to himself as he turned and began to make his way out of the room, beckoning for us to follow.

I shrugged and padded after him, sneezing as dust tickled my nose. Well, I suppose that was as good a solution as any. Hopefully, the goblins would be able to shed some light on the situation.

Behind me, Glider let out a muffled yelp as the harness looped around his mouth. Spike rolled his eyes and turned back, deftly untangling him with one paw. Draca chuckled, shaking her head silently.

Then Devil turned the corner and promptly stepped right into a full tub of water that was somehow _embedded in the floor_ (holy _Arceus_ wizards were _weird_ what the _heck?_), prompting me to hurry over and haul him out as he yipped and flailed in surprise.

Cub turned around at the sound of the splash, surprised. "Huh," he mused as he saw me pulling out the houndoom. "I don't think that was there before…"

Flare narrowed his eyes, eyeing the room with a new sense of wariness and caution. "Wizards," he hissed, "are _crazy._"

At times like this, I wholeheartedly agreed. After all, who else would be stupid enough to cut up their own _soul?_


	12. To Hunt a Snake

**Um, so, this is very late... *looks around nervously* sorry? Real life's been very busy, as usual... sorry everyone!**

**HUGE THANKS to Krazyfanfiction1, Seas and Shadows, ultima-owner, ElementalMaster16, Wishfull-star, Legolas Dragon Ranger, and guardsmansparky for reviewing!**

**Not really much to say, except that I'm a little nervous about this chapter's reception. It might be a little too sudden, since I pretty much came up with what happens on the fly. Please let me know what you think! Review or PM, either works. Thanks for reading, and enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own. Just look at the URL- _fanfiction_.net. Enough said.**

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><p><em>Crunch. Crunch-crunch-crunch <em>_**snap**_ _crunch __**crack**_ _pop-pop-__**pop**_

"Oh, wonderful. It's right out of a horror movie," I growled with distaste. Picking my way carefully down the tunnel that the basilisk-seviper had been using to hunt in the Forbidden Forest, I tried to avoid the scattered bones and skeleton bits that littered the ground. To put it simply, I was… less than successful.

"Complete with ominously large shed scales, a massive trail, and bloodstains," Devil added dryly.

I nodded in agreement, skirting around a particularly large patch of… _something_… that I would rather not identify. Cub had, with some prompting from the centaurs and unicorns, decided to confront the basilisk-seviper on a day when most of the castle would be out of the way, watching a Quidditch match. After talking to both Mrs. Norris and Moaning Myrtle, neither of whom had told us anything we didn't already know, an attack on the sentient equine peoples of the forest had prompted Cub into action. Both centaurs _and_ unicorns had been attacked, though thankfully with minimal casualties. Still, even one dead was one too many in our books.

At the front of the group, Cub padded along in ninetales form, tails waving behind him. His pokémon form was far more suited to the task than any of his others, having not only greater strength and senses but also the ability to breathe fire, plus some minor psionic abilities. Considering that seviper were Poison-types, this was likely to come in handy.

Over the past week or so, the Pride had also been taking turns watching the entrance hole to the tunnel, trying to determine whether or not the basilisk-seviper had a routine or a schedule. Luckily for us, it was a creature of habit, like most things, and had a tendency to hunt every few days or so at around dawn. Unusual, since many snakes could actually go for weeks between meals. Flare theorized that it must've been starving after its long hibernation, hence the regular feeding.

We had timed our own hunt to midmorning or so, when the basilisk-seviper would hopefully be resting or sleeping off its meal after it had gorged itself. If luck was with us we would catch it by surprise, subduing or- as a last resort -killing it. Basilisk venom was one of the few things proven to destroy Horcruxes, after all, and there would be a much steadier supply of it if the creature was alive rather than dead.

The tunnel itself was long, dark, and absolutely massive. I bet there would've been enough room for a staraptor to spread its wings in there, maybe even glide a bit if it was careful. We walked along it for what seemed like forever, but was probably only about twenty minutes. It sometimes curved in wide arcs and turns, always burrowing deeper, deeper, deeper, underneath the earth. At one point I think we even looped around the side of the Black Lake, as every surface became wet with moss and dripping water.

Finally, we came to the end- a solid stone wall emblazoned with a hissing snake. Cub didn't hesitate, and walked right up to it. He sniffed around it at first, threw out a couple experimental Embers, and tapped the seams with his paws. Then he took a step back and shifted to human form.

"Not sure if this'll work, but we can give it a try," he muttered, before leaning in and hissing something in the snake language. I had no idea what he said, honestly- it all sounded the same to me. But apparently it was the right passcode, because the door proceeded to roll aside with a great creaking and rumbling of old rock.

"_There_ we go," Cub exclaimed with satisfaction before shifting back to ninetales form. The black kitsune walked through, with us following behind.

We entered a large cavern that suddenly felt uncomfortably warm. There was a tangible, distinct temperature difference between the two areas- the cool tunnel and the hot cave.

_That can't be natural,_ I thought. Almost immediately afterwards, though, the obvious answer presented itself within my mind: magic. That made sense, I supposed, since snakes were cold-blooded and beaded outside sources of heat to keep warm. Flare had a tendency to curl up in bright patches of sunlight when he wanted to recharge his batteries, so to speak, and wherever we slept, he always chose the warmest spot.

"Hey, look at this," Cub commented as he nosed a large piece of semi-opaque snake shed skin. "Look at the size of those _scales_."

I looked at them and winced. Oh, that creature was going to be a _monster_. Like a large gyarados, or an onix. But probably with venom and a killing (or at least petrifying) glare. _Fun_.

(No, I wasn't intensely annoyed by the cold wet trek through mucky tunnels with far too much dirt for me to be comfortable at all. Whatever gave you that idea, I wonder?)

Cub shot a lick of flame at the shedded skin, gauging how well it burned. Unfortunately, it seemed barely affected, only a bit of dark soot left behind when the fire went out. Well. That was going to be annoying.

The way it crumpled under Cub's following Extrasensory, however, was quite a bit more promising. It seemed like the Poison-type weakness to Psychic-type was holding true. Well, sort of. It was better than nothing, at least.

As I scanned the area, making sure to use my x-ray vision, I realized that the creature wasn't in here. A quick sweep downwards, however, showed that it was curled up just below the floor we stood on, seemingly asleep. I could see another dark tunnel on the far wall, yawning wide as I traced its path from this cavern to the one below.

"It's underneath us," I told the group as they looked at me expectantly after Cub finished with the shedded skin. "Sleeping, I think."

"What's it look like?" Devil asked.

I checked again, focusing now on the reptile's appearance. "Big. A good two and a half gyarados' length long, I'd guess. Kind of a bright green color, too, but there are some undertones of black in scattered patches. It's got little gold circles along the spine, but they're not yet plates like a seviper's. The head is big and wedge-shaped, with a couple small horns on top. The scales look pretty rough all over, so those'll be easier to grab onto. All its fangs are inside the mouth, but from here, they look _massive_. Gonna want to watch out for that. And there is a tail-blade, but it's pretty small. Nothing else of note, I think."

"Is there a red crest on its head?" Cub asked, tails sweeping back and forth as he shifted slightly on his paws.

"No," I replied. "Why?"

"Just wondering. So it's female, then."

"And that matters... how?"

"Well, if one of us guys knows Attract, then we might be able to stall her for a moment," Spike suggested.

I frowned. "I don't know it. Do any of you know it?"

The other males thought for a moment, then shook their heads. "Nope. Sorry," they chorused.

"Never mind, then," I sighed.

Cub sat down, tails wrapping around his paws. "Oh, well. Honestly, not even sure if that applies, since it's clearly not full basilisk. Anyway, we need a plan," he told us.

"No s***, Sherlock," Devil muttered sarcastically.

The young human ignored him, and continued, "Draca, Thunder, see if you can paralyze it. I'm going to wrap a cloth around its eyes to make sure it can't use its death glare on us. The rest of you, pin it down if it wakes up. I'll use Extrasensory to help once I've got that cloth pinned on it. Remember, we're aiming to capture, not kill. I'll try to raise a barrier to confine it, but I'm not sure if it'll be able to break through or not. Clear?"

We all nodded.

Cub grinned foxily. "Good. Hopefully, we'll all make it out fine. If not- well, there's always me fire-teleporting it to some distant mountain as a phoenix. Good luck, everybody."

"And may Arceus be with us," Draca murmured under her breath.

* * *

><p>As was probably expected, given that nothing was ever that easy, the plan only halfway worked.<p>

Cub got the cloth on alright, transforming back into a human and using his spare set of robes (only thing he had that was large and thick enough) to blindfold the creature. He levitated them over the thing's eyes and then made them stay there with a Sticking Charm that was as strong as he could make it, knotting the sleeves together under the creature's chin as well just to be safe.

Draca and I layered on our most powerful Thunder Waves, sending the pulses to lock up the creature's muscles to prevent movement. That was, unfortunately, the point when everything went to Darkrai.

Apparently, that thing hasn't been quite as deeply asleep as we'd thought, because as the electrical energy snapped into place, it woke up- and it was _pissed_.

The basilisk-seviper shuddered for a moment, then rose up and snapped through our Thunder Waves like they were nothing. I felt a wave of panic as I kept blasting fruitlessly- but nothing. The attack was working, but the problem was, it just kept breaking through the paralysis far too fast.

Cub yelped, shifting hastily back to ninetales form as he snapped off an Extrasensory. "Alright, Plan B- attack!" he barked, launching another pulse of psychic energy as the basilisk-seviper roared and thrashed its head, trying to get the blindfold off. Luckily for us, Cub's Sticking Charm held, so we were safe- well, relatively, at least. We still had the giant snake itself to contend with, and it was like a group of angry, rampaging gyarados.

Devil howled a challenge and blasted it with a powerful Flamethrower. Unfortunately, all it did was splash harmlessly off the creature's thick hide, leaving a dark trail of soot but little else.

The creature's head snapped in his direction and it hissed angrily, tail-blade whipping around with deadly intent. But I was faster, dashing forwards to latch on with a Crunch that quickly transitioned into a punishing Thunder Fang. The creature shuddered, scales rippling under my jaws, but I could tell that I hadn't broken through the hide. All I had did was give it a little jolt, more annoying than anything else.

_F***_. _It's_ really _tough,_ I thought. Then, I berated myself for the stupid observation, thinking, _No s***! It's probably a millennia old! _as I released it before one of my fangs broke off trying to penetrate those thick scales.

Draca swirled in, elegant coils alight with flickering dragonfire. Her form looped and her scales flashed in such a way that it became difficult to tell her true position- all her opponent could tell was that she was moving in a tangled bundle of curves and arcs. She used that to her advantage, tail snapping out like a whip as she distracted the creature, which still seemed to be able to track us somehow by scent, sound, or body heat.

Glider flew low, pincers glowing brightly with a Night Slash. They scraped across the creature's scales with a horrifying _skriiik_ sound, leaving faint scratches but little else.

The basilisk-seviper snapped at Glider, glistening fangs nearly clipping his tail as he darted away with a Quick Attack. But then Flare drew its attention with a Mud Bomb, landing it right into the creature's mouth and making it gag. I thought that might have actually done some damage, until-

"Holy s***, is it _dissolving?_" I asked as the mud fizzled into nothing from the potent venom. Snapping off a Thunderbolt to keep it from noticing as Devil snuck up behind it, I made a mental note to stay far, _far_ away from those jaws.

Devil chose that moment to leap in with a Beat Up, embers peeling off his fangs as our ghostly copies converged on the creature. The creature seemed confused then, as it thrashed against the multi-pronged attack, having difficulty telling why there were suddenly so many more opponents. But a lucky shot with its tail slammed the houndoom into the wall, where he hit stone with a pained yelp and fell in a heap of tattered fur.

I snarled as sparks covered my entire body, jolting and electric. Draca helpfully set things up with Aqua Tail, soaking the creature from nose to tail- and then I loosed the greatest bolt of lightning I could muster.

Spike hauled Devil to his paws as Cub took advantage of the basilisk-seviper's subsequent uncontrollable spasms to leapt onto its back, biting down _hard_ just below the back of its head. His eyes glowed with psychic power as he used Extrasensory at the same time, beating down mercilessly on the creature.

It roared even louder and rose up even higher, swinging its body around and even slamming itself against the walls and ceiling in a futile attempt to throw Cub off. The young wizard clung on with the tenacity of a starving feraligatr, however, and only leapt to safety when he was nearly impaled on the creature's tail-blade.

We regrouped, then, converging into one corner as he caught our breath. "Alright, we need a better plan," I said.

Cub nodded. "It's pretty much invulnerable or at least quite resistant to nearly everything we throw at it. We need to get it at a spot without any scales- but where?"

"Inside," Flare hissed, no doubt remembering how it had hated his Mud Bomb. "No scales there. We get it to open its mouth, then-"

"Giant snake goes _boom,_" Cub finished with a downright feral grin. He looked for a moment as if he was going to say more, but we were abruptly cut off by the creature's tail-blade slamming down in our midst. Forced to scatter, our brief moment of respite was gone, and we leapt into battle once more.

* * *

><p>A little while later, we still had not succeeded in penetrating its thick hide or managing to hold its mouth open, and had all sustained injuries of our own to boot.<p>

I was limping, as one shoulder throbbed and refused to have the same range of motion as the other. Draca had lost patches of scales from where it had managed to slam her into the ground, the sapphire orbs on her tail perilously close to cracking. A couple of Flare's fangs had broken off somewhere along the way, leaving uneven holes in his teeth that gaped conspicuously.

Spike mentioned, between wheezing breaths, that he thought a couple of his ribs might be bruised. Glider's wings were riddled with scratches and a couple tiny rips, though thankfully nothing that impaired him too much. Part of the tip of one of Devil's horns had broken off, and there a gash from a sharp rock on his hind leg. Cub had nearly gotten a claw ripped off as he finally managed to slice into the creature's soft underbelly, and several of his tails were distinctly more tattered than before.

"Well, at least we're weakening it," Draca pointed out optimistically, even as she ducked away from another lunge of snapping fangs.

I tried not to stumble on my paws as another searing (but _useless,_ Arceus-d***it) bolt of electricity leapt from my fur to the creature's scales. Weakening? I hoped so. This thing was a _monster!_

On the far side of the cavern, anchored to the wall with Metal Claws, Spike flashed a brilliant sapphire-blue as his Aura flared around him. A growl rumbled low in his throat, his crimson eyes narrowed- and then he _leapt_.

Spike came down with a Bone Rush, spinning the Aura-charged staff around as swung it down with a sharp _crack_ onto the basilisk-seviper's skull, right between its blindfolded eyes. Backflipping off, he quickly to duck when the tail-blade slashed through the air over his ears, glistening with poison. As the creature opened its mouth wide to bite down on him, though-

Spike acted fast, thrusting the Bone Rush staff forward and lodging it inside its mouth to hold it open. The staff shattered moments later, even with Spike's Aura maintaining it, but-

It was enough.

We all saw our chance, and seven attacks were launched as one down the basilisk-seviper's throat. Blades of air, lightning, dragonfire, muck, just about every ranged attack we had. It _screamed_ in pain as the attacks ravaged its vulnerable insides. We all jumped back as it fell, twitching spasmodically.

And yet... it was _still alive_.

This time, Cub was the one to act. Shifting seamlessly to human form mid-leap, he immediately began to wave his hands in complicated motions, chanting quietly in words I didn't understand. Magic gathered at his fingertips, shimmering with barely restrained power. The basilisk-seviper twitched again, a low hiss emitting from its throat as it tried to rise-

Cub gave a great shout, hands moving faster as a massive translucent barrier slammed into place, just barely restraining the creature as it beat itself against it in an attempt to escape. The barrier shuddered, but held, glowing brighter and brighter as Cub kept chanting.

Perspiration began to form on the young wizard's brow. His hands were tracing runes now, arcane figures that flashed and then hung in the air, supported by nothing. They attached themselves to the barrier like so many stickers, emblazoned proud as they pulsed with magic. Every rune seemed to make the barrier stronger, more stable, and it shivered less and less as the basilisk-seviper thrashed furiously. The barrier stretched all the way from the floor to the ceiling, trapping the creature in a magical cage.

At length, Cub's frantic movements slowed, then stopped, and he sagged against the wall in exhaustion. "Well, that's a temporary solution, at least," he sighed. "I'll have to physically carve some more runes into the floor if it's gonna be permanent- probably into the walls and ceiling too."

There was a muffled _thump_ as the creature hurled itself against the barrier once more. It spat something in the hissing tones of snake language, and Cub snarled before hissing something equally vicious right back. At least, I assumed it was vicious. It all sounded the same to me.

The creature rumbled something else. Cub growled, a low, guttural sound that was probably a holdover from his ninetales form. The basilisk-seviper subsided after that, and settled for glaring sightlessly in our direction.

"Well, that was... actually a bit easier than I expected," Glider commented with dry humor. "I was kinda expecting us to end up bringing down the roof or something."

Then Devil collapsed, landing heavily on his side to reveal the poisoned wound that gaped with dark (red-red-red _too_ red) blood from his flank.

_Oh, __**no.**_


	13. The Ancestor

**HUGE THANKS to Wishfull-star, Krazyfanfiction1, Seas and Shadows, Taranodongirl1, Guest, ElementalMaster16, ultima-owner, stars90, secret-sorrow, and crazyone-oh-one for reviewing!**

**To crazyone-oh-one: Whoa, that's a bit drastic! *laughs nervously* Ah, well, here's next chapter and everything is fine, see? Just read!**

**Anyway, to anyone still reading, I have to say that I'm very sorry for leaving you all on this cliffhanger for two months. Real life just got insanely busy insanely fast- as in, I have literally never been that busy before in my life. Ever. _Aargh._ It was _so. Freaking. Tiring._**

**Besides which, once everything died down and I actually had time to write, this chapter tried to fight me every step of the way. Seriously, it was such a pain to get out. I just don't have any inspiration for this fic in general, actually. Not entirely sure why, since I have an idea for what I want to happen, but the words just... won't translate into print. Bleh. So, this fic will probably end in a chapter or two. Probably. No promises about update speed, though- like I said, inspiration has been pretty much nonexistent. (And don't worry about the series as a whole, because that's still going on until fourth year.)**

**At least there's this, though! Enjoy! And please let me know what was good, what was bad, and what was downright awful. Otherwise, I have no idea what I need to work on the most.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon or Harry Potter. It would be really cool if I did, but then I'd probably end up making a bizarre crossover where Voldemort gets eaten by Dialga, so...**

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><p>"Feeling any better?" I asked, trying to ignore the exhausted trembling in my paws. Now that the adrenaline rush had worn off, fatigue had caught up to me and I was feeling completely drained.<p>

"Yeah, a lot, thanks," Devil replied as he gingerly shifted on his paws. "Arceus, those phoenix tears are pretty potent."

"And a good thing, too," Draca added briskly as she eyed the now-cleaned and mostly healed wound with a critical gaze. "You were in serious trouble there, until Cub remembered how to heal basilisk venom."

Devil's tail flicked as he gave up on standing and lay back down, careful not to jostle his side. "Speaking of which, how is he?" the houndoom asked, sounding worried. "He used up a lot of energy making that barrier, didn't he? After that he still managed to shift forms and heal me, _then_ go carve runes to make the barrier more permanent…"

"Cub's fine. Just sleeping," Spike assured him as he wandered over, sinking to his haunches with his back against the wall to join us. "He's tired, but alright. Got off relatively unscathed, unlike a certain _reckless idiot_-"

"Hey, I take offense to that!" Devil objected indignantly. "I am not _reckless_ or an _idiot-_"

"Says the pokemon who didn't tell us when he got slashed by a _poisoned tail-blade,_" Glider muttered.

The canine pokemon huffed. "You, shush. Besides, I thought I was fine!"

"When you clearly were _not,_" I countered.

Flare hissed. "Devil, getting poisoned that badly is _not_ a joke! Believe me, I know _exactly_ how fast poisons of this type can kill. For Arceus's sake, just- next time, what if we hadn't been so lucky?"

"I know, I know!" Devil snapped back. "I know, it was stupid not to say anything until I collapsed, but I'm _fine_ now. It's alright. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon."

"You'd better not," I growled as I gave up and lay down, the stone floor cool beneath my fur. "Who else is going to fight Psychic-types in tournaments, after all?"

"Ha, ha," he intoned dryly. "Very funny."

I snorted and rested my head on my paws, eyes slipping closed as I finally relaxed. Devil was fine, Cub was fine, the Pride was fine and the basilisk-seviper was taken care of.

Everything else… eh, we could deal with that later.

* * *

><p>Alright. Turns out, we <em>were <em>missed when we were down in the tunnels.

"Mr. Pride," Professor McGonagall asked frostily, "_what_ is the meaning of this?"

Cub, who had just opened up the parseltongue-encoded passageway so we could leave the underground caverns, couldn't help but flinch. "Erm," he said, "we were just, ah, exploring."

The deputy headmistress crossed her arms, mouth a tight line across her face. "Oh, so you were _exploring,_ were you? And you just _happened_ to go down this hole, too, I'd guess. This hole that _just so happens_ to smell of very large, very ancient reptile." Her eyes narrowed, and if she had been in cat form I knew her tail would have been lashing angrily from side to side. "And the creature that made this tunnel… it wouldn't happen to be the giant snake terrorizing the forest, would it? The one that I am told is quite likely Slytherin's Monster?"

Cub very carefully did not meet her gaze. "Erm…"

Back down the tunnels, there was a faint echo of a furious, hissing, snarl.

Professor McGonagall's gaze sharpened until it was as deadly as one of her claws. "De_tention,_ Mr. Pride."

Cub wilted.

* * *

><p>"Ow." The young wizard rubbed his ear, wincing. "I'm pretty sure she was about to lecture my ear off if she had gone on for much longer!"<p>

"Alright, admittedly? We did sort of deserve that," I muttered. "It _was_ a bit stupid and reckless to go after the thing without telling anybody."

"Yeah, but we beat it," Cub pointed out, sitting cross-legged on top of his bed. "We even all came out mostly fine."

"But what if we hadn't? There were a lot of ways that battle could have gone wrong," Draca countered. "As it is, we're still going to be feeling these bruises for _weeks._ And we still have to figure out what to actually _do _with the basilisk-seviper thing."

Cub winced at the reminder of what we had left trapped down in the tunnels. "Right…"

"Yeah, what _are_ we going to do with that? Can't exactly just leave it down there forever," I added.

"Can't release it either, though," Spike pointed out. "I mean, that would just be stupid. Or we could just leave it, come down every once in a while to reinforce the runes. It's gonna starve to death eventually, right?"

"Yeah, but 'eventually' could be a very long time. Last time it came out was fifty years ago, remember? Between then and now, it was in a sort of dormant hibernation. And chances are, in fifty years, we're not going to be around here anymore."

"True enough. But it's not like a pet we can keep hidden under the castle forever, or even for very long. Professor McGonagall, at least, knows that it's down there…"

"Maybe she does, but she doesn't have any proof. You need Parseltongue to get into the place where it actually is, and last I checked Professor McGonagall doesn't speak Parseltongue."

"That doesn't mean she can't stop us from going back down, though. Technically, the forest _is_ forbidden. We just ignore that most of the time."

"Then it's simple. We just sneak in. Worst case, Cub goes phoenix and we teleport."

"...True."

* * *

><p>"I don't trust her," Flare hissed as he glared at the basilisk-seviper. According to Cub, she had been called the Ancestor (and was definitely female) by whoever had summoned her out of the Chamber. She had also told him that she had been summoned by a young boy with pale skin and dark hair, but wouldn't say anything more. Cub was with her still, trying to figure out who exactly was attempting to kill off students at Hogwarts.<p>

"Yeah, well, who does?" Glider asked rhetorically. We were gathered in the cavern where the Ancestor was trapped, guarding Cub as he and the ancient serpent conversed.

I kept one eye on the Ancestor's fangs and one eye on her tail as it twitched behind her. I had no idea what she and Cub were saying in those strange, hissing sounds of Parseltongue, but whatever it was it seemed that Cub was getting frustrated. The young wizard was frowning deeply, while the Ancestor seemed almost, well... _amused_.

"Wonder what they're talking about," Spike mused as he idly scratched out doodles on the floor with a pair of Metal Claws.

Flare let his hood collapse a bit as he summed up, "Cub's trying to get more information on who told her to terrorize the school. She's deliberately talking him in circles, and he knows it."

"Great," Spike huffed. "So. Pale skin, dark hair. Gee, that doesn't describe a third of the kids here at _all!_"

Draca rolled her eyes, head-wings twitching slightly. "Relax," she assured the lucario. "Whoever it is, we'll catch them eventually. At least now we can be sure nobody else will get Petrified."

"That's a comfort," Devil agreed. He eyed the Ancestor with a healthy amount of wary trepidation before adding, "So, are we just going to leave her down here forever or what?"

I shrugged. "Not sure. I think Cub's trying to work something out, but who knows."

"Whatever he does," Devil muttered as he watched Cub and the Ancestor continue to talk, "I hope he does it soon. The teachers are starting to get suspicious about where we keep sneaking off to. I think one of them is going to try to follow us soon."

"Ah. That could be problematic. Somehow, I don't think they'd take well to the fact that we took down Slytherin's Monster without telling them. The adults here are so much more protective than back home," I mused.

"Yes, that's definitely true," Draca agreed with a nod. "In one way, it's nice to see humans actually worrying more about their young instead of letting them leave the nest as early as in our world. In another, it does get quite a bit more stifling, with significantly less freedom."

"I get the feeling that most human young mature much earlier in our world, though," Glider interjected. "Some of the students here at the school are so… I don't know, they just feel so much _younger_ than most trainers their own age. Even when they aren't, or are even older."

There were general nods of agreement at this. Before any sort of conversation could continue, however-

"What?! No! How in the name of Arceus could you think- no_._ Just, _no._ You're too dangerous to keep here!" Cub suddenly exclaimed in English, reverting back to his natural tongue. "Besides, what if whoever set you loose in the first place comes back? I am _not_ about to run the risk of you getting free and going around to kill people again."

The Ancestor hissed something that was probably nasty, if her thrashing tail and bared fangs were any indication. I was sure that if her eyes had been visible (the makeshift blindfold still covered them, thank Arceus) they would have been narrowed and alight with fury. Cub, switching back to Parseltongue, hissed his answer in a tone that brooked no argument.

Flare slithered a little closer, tracking the rapid-fire exchange intently. The ground shuddered as the Ancestor beat her tail against it in frustration, but the wards held firm and didn't so much as twinge. She seemed to get more and more agitated as the two kept talking, but we could only infer so much from body language. The entire spectacle was like watching a movie in a different language and not knowing what in the name of Arceus was going on.

I thought about asking Flare to translate, but it sounded like they may have been going too quickly to keep up. The Ancestor was getting increasingly agitated, while Cub refused to back down. In fact, he even looked a little smug, a distinctly satisfied grin tugging at the edge of his lips.

At length, Cub broke away and turned towards us. "Right," he started, "I think I have a couple options. Obviously, Miss Ancestor doesn't like either of them, but it's not like she has much of a choice."

Devil perked up at that. "What are the options?"

"Either seal her into the Room of Requirement and recruit a trusted house elf to keep her fed and such, or contact Mewtwo and have her brought to our world. I don't know if she can be caught in a pokeball or not, but even if she can't, I'm sure Lance has a way to keep her restrained. He and his clan, they work with insanely powerful dragons all the time," Cub reasoned. "They've got to have _something _to control the ones who are too wild, right? And we'll work out something a bit more permanent for a blindfold than what we've got now."

I twitched my ears and thought it over. The decision wasn't particularly difficult; I already knew which one I favored.

"Personally, I vote for the one where we kick her off this planet entirely," Devil barked after a minute of silence.

"Seconded," I added in. "Tyranitar can move _mountains._ Lance has one on his team, plus _two dragonites._ I'm pretty he's equipped to handle one giant mutated seviper-creature."

"Agreed."

"Yeah, I vote for that too."

"Definitely. Let's make sure she's not anywhere near the school full of children."

"Or the forest of innocent bystanders."

Cub grinned wryly. "It's unanimous, then? Yeah, I kinda figured. It's agreed: next weekend, we can sneak out to our warded area outside London and call Mewtwo. He should be able to help transport the Ancestor between worlds."

Behind him, the Ancestor hissed malevolently and slashed her tail-blade across the wall. The resulting gash was a good few inches deep at least, and it steamed quietly from the poison that ate right into the rock. It didn't seem like she was very happy about her prospective future.

* * *

><p>We were right. The professors did try following us.<p>

Too bad phoenixes could teleport.

* * *

><p>Mewtwo stared at the Ancestor. She stared back- or, well, if she was able to see she would have. Mewtwo blinked once, then projected, <em>I see the problem.<em>

"Yeah…" Cub chuckled nervously. "I would try to take her myself, but I don't know if I can carry her on an interplanetary journey without the results being… messy. Besides, you're a Psychic-type, and Poison is weak to Psychic. You'll probably have an easier time of it keeping her subdued than me."

_True,_ Mewtwo acknowledged. _Very well. Now that I have memorized this spot, I shall return tomorrow to remove this… _Ancestor _creature. First, I must inform Lance._

"Oh, right. Probably a good thing to do before we drop an ancient, basilisk-seviper mashup on him," Cub mused with a slight wince. "Um, can you tell him to watch out for the tail? And he can't remove that eye-blocking headgear at any time for any reason, because then anyone who looks into her eyes will instantly die."

_Yes, I will tell him,_ Mewtwo replied. Without further deliberation, he Teleported away, presumably going back to the Pokemon World.

"Right, then," Cub said after a beat of silence. "I guess now all we do is wait."

* * *

><p><em>Lance did not appreciate his newest tenant, especially not on such short notice,<em> Mewtwo reported two days later. _However, several of his clan who are researchers were very excited. And you were correct- they had ample facilities to contain the Ancestor. Although, he does want me to tell you this, and I quote: "Next time, just get me a nice cape instead of a giant, vicious, gaze-of-death monster. And a lot more warning would be nice. Preferably enough months of warning so that I can quit my job and let someone else deal with it."_

Cub looked torn between laughter and guilt. "Ah. Um, mind telling him that I'm sorry for the terrible gift, but it was either that or keep her hidden in a school full of innocent kids. Sorry, though."

Mewtwo narrowed his eyes. _What am I, your messenger boy?_

Devil looked at me. "Well," he sighed, "at least that thing is far, _far_ away now. And good riddance, too. Enduring that venom once was _more_ than enough."


	14. More Than Meets the Eye

**So... um. Two months. I hadn't realized it had been that long. Or that I was that late with this chapter... um. Oops? **

**HUGE THANKS to Seas and Shadows, DarkKitsuneFluffy, crazyone-oh-one, Nightwing 509, ultima-owner, FANatic Writer, Wishfull-star, Legolas Dragon Ranger, stars90, and Edir for reviewing!**

**To stars90: Thank you! I think everyone else pretty much skipped the last author's note, which I don't really blame them for... hopefully I'll get my optimism and enjoyment in this story back. Maybe I'll read some other, better quality HP/Pokemon crossovers to rekindle my inspiration or something.**

**To Edir: Um... well, you're half right. Centrifugal _does_ exist, and so does centripetal. Centripetal is the opposite of centrifugal. It's in the dictionary if you want to look it up.**

**To all of you who are still reading: enjoy the chapter, and please feel free to tell me what went horribly wrong and what went sort of right in your opinions! Otherwise I won't know what I'm doing well and what I'm doing, ah, not so well. Thanks!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Pokemon. I just like to play in their universes.**

* * *

><p>"I hope you learned your lesson," I mumbled around a mouthful of fur. "How many times do we have to tell you- <em>don't wander into centaur territory!<em>"

Prince hissed sullenly, hanging from the scruff of his neck between my jaws like a misbehaving kitten. "Not _my_ fault that squirrel ran into that archery class," he muttered.

I growled and shook him lightly, resisting the urge to charge up a Thunder Fang on him right then and there. "That was no excuse to cause a stampede!"

Tightening my grip as I seriously considered dropping him into a mud puddle, I clawed my way over a fallen log, taking vindictive pleasure in letting his hind legs scrape over the rough bark. One of my paws smarted from where it had gotten stepped on by a panicked centaur foal during all the confusion, and while it wasn't a serious injury by any means it was still rather annoying. Especially given that the entire incident could have been avoided if Prince had just been a little less _reckless._

Before the glameow could retort, we heard thudding pawsteps heading our direction, just before Devil sprang out of the brush. He skidded to a stop as he saw us, tongue lolling out as he panted. Mud spattered his legs and underbelly in tan-brown streaks, twigs and leaves clinging stubbornly to his fur. I sighed in relief- as much as I could while carrying Prince, anyway –and padded forwards to meet him.

"Found the little troublemaker," I announced as I dropped Prince rather unceremoniously at his feet. "Your turn to tell Cub what he did this time."

"Let me guess," Spike broke in dryly as he emerged from the shadows, "he's the reason why the centaurs decided it would be a good idea to walk into our training session and take Cub aside for a little… _chat._"

I nodded. "_Someone_ decided that it would be a good idea to chase a squirrel right into a centaur foals' archery class. He ran right across the range just as a group was about to shoot, spooking them- which made arrows go everywhere. Then he pounced on the squirrel, missed, and landed on the instructor instead. Instructor freaks out, entire class freaks out, stampede," I explained.

Prince hunched his shoulders and dropped his head, ears flattened and tail tucked. He was starting to look a tad guiltier when it was all laid out like that, blunt and leaving no room for argument or twisting the truth. Good. He needed to learn how to own up to his mistakes. And _oh,_ was this a big one.

Spike winced. "Oh, Arceus. Worse than I thought. I was hoping he had just interrupted one of their hunts or something…"

Devil huffed, embers flickering about his jaws. "One of these days," he growled at Prince, "Cub is going to get tired of putting up with you and you're going to end up as a pincushion. You know he'd do it if you don't behave, right?"

Prince hunched in on himself even further, saying nothing.

Spike released a quiet sigh and scrubbed a paw across his face, the action remarkably human and probably something he'd picked up from one. "Aargh, whatever. Let's just bring him back and let Cub deal with him. C'mon, guys."

I held back an aggravated groan and scooped up Prince again, his fur prickly against my mouth. Right. Time to trek through the rest of the woods.

* * *

><p>"<em>What,<em>" Cub asked, low and dangerous, "were you _thinking?_"

He loomed over Prince in ninetales form, huge and black with all his tails fanned out like the spokes of a giant wheel. Prince quailed, shamefaced.

"The centaurs are a proud race. They rarely deal with humans, even a human like me, and regardless of how much trust I had with them that trust is fragile! If it appears to them that I cannot control you, then it would be perfectly within their rights to demand you be removed from the forest completely. And it's not just the centaurs, either! You can't insult the unicorns by comparing them to rapidash, you can't hunt the bowtruckles because it's a _fun challenge,_ and you _definitely _can't go running off on your own. These woods are still dangerous, even for a pokemon. Got it?" Cub barked sharply.

Prince's ears drooped as he nodded, then slunk off to mope next to Shelly in the cool shade of a nearby tree when Cub turned away in dismissal. Looking the very picture of repentant dejection, he curled into a ball of grey fur and coiled tail and proceeded to ignore Shelly's attempts at conversation.

I watched him go, absently making my claws pulse sparks in snippets and phrases. It had been quite a while since I had last communicated with another of my own kind like that, but half a lifetime of habit didn't die easily.

_I am Pride,_ one sequence of energy spelled out. _Time to hunt,_ said another.

_Storm coming. Winter approaches. Stay away. My territory. Injured. Watch for traps. Danger. Protect the cubs. Welcome home._

Cub walked over and lay down beside me with a near-silent huff, tails curling gracefully around his paws. "And I thought _I_ was stupid when I was younger," he grumbled. He yawned, showing off every tooth, then shook his head and chuckled to himself. "Oh wow, now I feel old."

"Well, you sort of are, comparatively," I pointed out. "Prince is barely growing out of his kitten fur, and you've been on your own bizarre version of a pokemon journey for years already."

Cub made a noise of agreement. "Fair enough. And speaking of which- Gringotts sent back earlier. They figured out how to purify the diadem without destroying it, which they will do free of charge. Except, only catch is that they want to keep the diadem afterwards."

I snorted, watching as Spike and Draca sparred on the far side of the clearing. "Let them have it, then. We do need to stay in their good graces."

"Yeah, I thought so," he concurred with a nod. "While it would be useful, I don't think it's worth the risk. If word got out somehow, everybody in the school would want their hands on it. Besides, the goblins have far better security than we do."

"Mm. And how are preparations going to get the horcrux out of you?" I asked. "It's been awhile since they started, hasn't it?"

"Well, it is a very complicated ritual, and they're busy with other things too," Cub pointed out. "But I think they're almost ready. By this summer at the latest, I'd guess."

"Good," I told him as I ducked under a stray Aura Sphere. "It doesn't seem to have affected you negatively so far, but who knows what'll happen in the long run."

Cub sighed. "Thanks Arceus for that. We still have to figure out who was controlling the basilisk thing, as well. All she would tell me was that whoever it was is her master's heir, and we already knew that bit."

I flicked an ear, watching Spike accidentally decimate part of a tree when his Iron Tail missed. "Isn't there some sort of magical way to track people, or find things or something?"

The young wizard narrowed his eyes, considering. "Well, Point Me needs a specific target, so that one's probably a bit too iffy for my tastes. Could try scrying, though. It's harder, but more precise."

I nodded. "Good. Then we should get on that as soon as possible, in case the Heir figures out that their weapon is out of commision and goes looking for a new one."

Behind us, there was an abruptly heavy _thump-__**thunk**_ sound, simultaneously accompanied by affronted yowling. Cub closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and pointedly did not turn around. "I'm going to ignore that," he said deliberately, "and pretend that I didn't hear anything. _Anything._ This is clearing is peaceful, calm, and quiet."

His friends laughed at him. "Oh, Harry," Hermione giggled, "nothing's ever peaceful, calm, or quiet around _you._"

Glider snickered from a nearby tree. "And never have truer words been spoken."

* * *

><p>It was a gloriously wonderful day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, etcetera etcetera. Winter was well and truly over by that point, having finally lost its grip on the ancient school. Grass grew lush and thick, sun-warmed and inviting to any who wanted to bask on it.<p>

Of course, that meant that I had to spend the day doing what was rapidly becoming one of my least-favorite activities. Prince hunting.

The young glameow had, for whatever reason, apparently made it his mission to find every single hiding place he could possible squeeze himself into. And hide in them. For _hours._ Without telling anybody where or when he decided to wander off, which meant that we'd often look around, realize he wasn't there, and proceed to try and track him down.

After the fifth time, Cub finally gave up and put a tracking charm on him. However, that just meant that, while we saved time _finding _Prince, we still had to spend time extracting him from wherever he had decided to hole up. Again. It was usually somewhere very small and difficult to reach, as well, which only added to our ire.

"One of these days," Cub told him, "I am going to lock you inside a closet and _permanently_ charm it closed."

Prince, huddled in one of the boots of a particularly stubborn suit of armor, ignored him.

Now, on a perfectly fine day that I could have spent doing something far more productive, I was once again tracking down the wayward pokemon. Except… this time, there was a bit of a problem.

"You have got to be _kidding_ me," Spike groaned as he saw where Prince had disappeared to. "Really, Prince? _Really?_"

Cub sighed. "So much for laying low," he groused under his breath.

Luna, perched up in the branches of a wide oak, looked over at us and smiled. "Hello, Harry!" she called. "Are you looking for the blibbering humdingers?"

"No, actually. I was looking for my cat, and I think you've found him for me," Cub replied as he craned his neck to look up at her. "Sorry, but he really shouldn't have wandered off. May I have him back now, please?"

Curled up in Luna's arms, purring as Luna stroked him, Prince stopped just long enough to glare.

"Oh…" Luna's face fell as she glanced down at Prince. "Alright. May I hold him for a bit longer, though? Daddy used to tell me all these wonderful stories about pocket monsters and other worlds when I was little, and I always liked the ones about the cat-creatures especially…"

Cub froze. "Wait a minute. Luna… do you know what he _is?_"

The rest of us had instantly snapped to attention at her words, surprised. Pocket monsters was another, little-used term for pokemon, but- how did Luna know of it? And apparently her father had told her _stories_ about pokemon? How did _he_ know about that? We had been under the impression that knowledge of the creatures that had once shared this world was lost. Clearly not.

Luna smiled dreamily and nodded. "Oh, of course. I've never met one of his kind, before, so that was why I was curious. He's very soft. And he's much more like a cat than I thought."

Cub looked like he was about to choke on something. "Erm. Yes. Yes he is."

Prince, as if to emphasize the point, purred louder.

Luna tilted her head to the side, regarding us with vague curiosity. "What's his name?"

"Prince," Cub replied. Walking over, he apparently decided that neither of them were going to come down anytime soon, so instead he climbed up the tree and settled himself on a branch right near Luna's. "Because he certainly acts like one. He really shouldn't be out here, though. I haven't managed to get him to follow instructions very well yet."

"He's still young, isn't he?" Luna asked, scratching gently behind one ear. "Fascinating."

"He is, yeah." Clearing his throat, Cub then bluntly asked, "Luna. What do you know about pokemon?"

"I know that they exist, no matter what other people say," Luna hummed after a moment. "I know that they used to live here, with us, until wizards drove them away so they left. Daddy says that they're still out there, somewhere, in a place where the grass is always green and the waters are always clear and the wizards never bother them anymore." She turned to Cub, that innocently vacant smile still on her face. "I know that you come from where they live now, and that you brought some of them here with you. And they're just behind those bushes over there."

Cub stared at her. "Oh. So, this whole time…"

Luna nodded. "The moon frogs know quite a lot about what's beyond our world. Sometimes they hop into my dreams and tell me about it."

Green eyes blinked at her. "Um… okay. Sure."

Crouched behind the bushes, the Pride watched at the unfolding scene in a unanimous state of confusion. Luna knew. She had known the entire time.

...Huh. That was somewhat unexpected.

* * *

><p>Turns out, Luna reminded both Prince and Shelly of their old trainer. They took to her like ducks to water- or, in Prince's case, like a cat to sunbathing. Within a week, the pair were already seeking out Luna every chance they had. Soon enough, Cub decided to make it official and gift Luna with Prince's and Shelly's pokeballs.<p>

"I can help you train them," he told her as he added anti-theft charms and protective enchantments to prevent the pokeballs from breaking or cracking. "Hermione and Neville, too. I think you'd like Amethyst."

Later that week, when she came into our training clearing for the first time and saw just how many pokemon were actually living on school grounds, she was over the moon with excitement. Pun intended. The Pride still found her a little odd, but honestly, who wasn't among our group? It barely mattered. Not compared to some of the other stuff we'd seen over the years, at least.

Prince had settled down, as well, now that he had a proper trainer who would actually have time to give as much attention to him as he needed. Something Cub had, unfortunately, been unable to do. Shelly, who was very easygoing and got along with everyone, easily rolled with the transition. She just wanted to stay with Prince, and beyond that, she didn't mind where they went or who their trainer was. She was easy to please like that. It was really quite refreshing.

"You know," Hermione remarked as Amethyst obligingly showed off her psychic powers to a wide-eyed Luna, "once you get to know her, she's really not that bad."

"Pretty cool, actually," Neville added as Luna tried to imitate Amethyst with some clever tweaking of a levitation spell. "I think she's smarter than a lot of people give her credit for."

"Of course. She's a Ravenclaw," Cub laughed. "Like me."

"I was almost in Ravenclaw," Hermione noted. "But the Hat decided on Gryffindor instead." She eyed Cub appraisingly. "Actually, now that I think about it, you're not exactly a typical Ravenclaw… you'd fit Gryffindor a little better, in terms of personality. Why?"

He shrugged. "The Sorting Hat takes your own opinion and choice into account too, I think. I just wanted a house where I wouldn't stand out too much, and where not too many people would bother me. Ravenclaw was a better fit for me han Hufflepuff, so here I am." He grinned widely. "Besides, eagles and phoenixes are both birds. Kinda funny how that turned out."

Glider swooped low overhead, Avis close in pursuit. The three humans automatically ducked, then straightened up and resumed their conversation as if nothing had happened.

"Anyways, that's probably a coincidence, but still cool," the Pride's trainer continued. "Honestly, though, I'm just glad that Prince and Shelly found someone they like. Wasn't really sure what to do with them, considering that the Pride is all I need, and you two were already busy with Ursa and Avis…"

"They'll be good for Luna, too," Neville agreed as he watched Prince slink between Luna and Amethyst. Luna immediately stopped what she was doing to pet him, Amethyst looking vaguely miffed as Prince stole all of the girl's attention. "I think their personalities will balance hers a bit. Sort of. Hopefully."

"Yup," Cub said with a nod. "And now," he added under his breath so that his friends didn't hear, "I can focus on the important stuff. Like figuring out who exactly was controlling the Ancestor… and making sure that they never do it again."


	15. A Strange Black Book

**HUGE THANKS to Nightwing 509, ultima-owner, Seas and Shadows, FANactic Writer, ElementalMaster16, Wishfull-star, Bast Misao, Nozomi Higurashi, Silverleone, Morgan Lovegood, Obsessed Crazy Fanboy, sofiane, and kaisonsheart for reviewing!**

**To Bast Misao: Ah, that is now fixed. Sorry! I don't know what I was thinking... .**

**To kaisonsheart: Yeah, I kind of wish I'd set up character development much earlier on... and actually hammered out backstories for the Pride beyond, "from really bad trainers and from the Sinnoh region". Because, um, I actually don't have any. Oops. In my defense, I started this fic on a whim and three hundred words of bad prologue, and I only continued because people seemed to like it. I'll try to introduce some backstory stuff in the future. ^.^'**

**...Holy crud I can't believe it's been so long. Um. The lack of updates was caused by _insanely_ busy real life, a shiny new fandom that distracted me, almost zero inspiration or motivation for this chapter, and a crudton of other fics that took up my attention. And, to be honest, I've been lacking in motivation for this entire story. I just... there's so many things wrong with it that I feel like I should just scrap the whole thing and start over, but it's too big and I don't have time for a rewrite. Plus, there's so many other fics that I'd rather work on, yet somehow this one gets the most attention so I feel like I should at least finish it.**

**At this point, I'll probably have this fic of the series wrap up soon, and try to write the rest of the series in a somewhat coherent way. My current plans have Cub defeat Voldemort in his fourth year, because however much I don't like how I've written this, I still want to write the Pride absolutely decimating competition with the Tournament. Except that I still have to get through third year first. Oh, dear. **

**Anyways, sorry for my long lack of updates (update schedule? What even is that? :P) and my lack of motivation. I'm really glad that people still seem to like it, though. I hope you guys enjoy the new chapter! :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own, etc. etc.**

**Edit 3-12-16 To Seas and Shadows: Whoops, you're right! I guess I thought Banished instead of Vanished since banishing something means sending it away, though Vanished makes more sense as that means getting rid of it entirely. Thanks for alerting me to the mistake! It's fixed now. ^.^**

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><p><em>How do we track someone who leaves no trace?<em>

That was the question that we've been trying to puzzle out for the past few days, and it had been frustrating. Before, when we asked the Ancestor herself, all she said was that her Master was the Heir of Slytherin, if she said anything at all. Then she was carted off to an entirely different planet, which cut off that avenue of questioning completely.

Cub sighed, staring down at a piece of paper where he'd written everything we knew about this mysterious Heir.

"Pureblood," he said aloud. "Blood purist. Likely a Slytherin." He tapped his fingers on the table, frowning to himself. "Also smart. Knew enough about basilisks to kill off the roosters, if the gossip is to be believed."

"Oh, it's accurate, alright," Devil confirmed, looking up from the bone he was gnawing. "I saw Hagrid feeding them to the hippogriffs earlier."

"Alright." Cub nodded, scribbling down a note in the margin of the paper. "So. They did their research, they're a blood purist pureblood, and likely a Slytherin. Who does that narrow it down to?"

I snorted. "Most of Slytherin, pretty much."

"Helpful," Cub sighed. "We now have… a quarter of the school. Any ideas for narrowing it down even further than that?"

"Start with the roosters?" Spike suggested, rolling an Aura Sphere between his paws. "Maybe they left clues."

"Unlikely that Hagrid would've missed anything that obvious, though," Draca pointed out. "He may not be the sharpest claw on the dragon, but he's pretty good about watching over his animals. And magic removes most clues fairly easily."

"True. Still, it's worth a look," Cub decided. "Not like we have a ton of other leads, at any rate." He rose to his feet, folding the paper into a neat square and tucking it into one pocket. "Let's go now, before the trail gets even colder than it already is."

* * *

><p>There were too many scents to get a handle on which one could possibly be the roosters' killer. Hagrid's was most prominent, naturally. Beneath that was something distinctly canine. Likely Fang, the boarhound. Further under that were the natural scents of earth and loam, plants, chicken feed, and so on. Anything else was probably visiting students, too many and too faint to get a proper read on.<p>

"Any tracks would've been long since trampled over," Devil reported, raising his head from where he'd been sniffing around the garden. "The only clear ones out here right now are Hagrid's and ours'."

Cub sighed. "Well, we knew it was a long shot." He circled the perimeter of the garden, erasing all traces of our presence as he went. "C'mon, guys. Maybe the centaurs will know something?"

I picked my way out from a patch of pumpkins, careful not to accidentally step on any of the vines. Devil joined me a second later, moving at an easy lope.

"Hey, do you think we could catch their scent in the Chamber?" Devil asked. "I just thought of it. I mean, they probably went down there to control the Ancestor, right? Maybe they realized she's gone and they went back to see what happened."

"It's only been a few days, though," I pointed out. "They may not have even realized that anything is wrong yet."

"Well, then, they will soon," Devil replied. "Hey, wait- couldn't we just stake out the Chamber and wait for them to show up, then?"

Cub, who'd been listening with half an ear as we walked towards the forest, stopped in his tracks. "Oh," he said, "that's… a pretty good idea. We should do that. Thanks, Devil."

"You're welcome." The houndoom beamed proudly.

The rest of us followed as Cub changed course, heading for the tunnel we'd used to get into the Chamber the first time. By that point, it was closer than the entrance inside the school, and less risky besides. Perhaps, if we were lucky, there would be a fresh scent to track.

* * *

><p>As it turned out, we were even luckier than expected.<p>

"Oh," Cub said, as he saw the girl pacing the length of the Chamber. "Well. Certainly didn't see that one coming. Ginny Weasley? _Really?_"

In all honesty, she was just about the last person any of us would've pegged as Slytherin's Heir. Her entire family were well-known friends of Dumbledore, every one of them Gryffindors to the bone. She herself had followed that tradition, which didn't fit at all with what we'd believed about the Heir.

At the moment, though… she looked _terrible._

Ginny's skin was sallow and washed out, her hair clumped in lanky strands and the bags under her eyes dark as bruises. Her feet slapped against the cavern floor in echoing steps, robes hanging limp over a too-thin frame. Her movements were stilted and jerky, jaw tense and eyes wide in something close to panic.

Adding to the somewhat unhinged appearance, Ginny seemed to be talking to herself as she paced. Her fingers twisted together as she wrung her hands, and every so often she would wipe them on her robes. Her eyes darted back and forth, pupils blown wide as her gaze skittered across her surroundings.

Cub motioned for us to be as still and silent as possible when Ginny looked at the alcove we were hiding in. He'd charmed us all to be invisible, true, but if Ginny truly was the Heir then she'd probably have a few tricks up her sleeves that we weren't aware of. No sense in tempting fate, after all.

While she paced, however, I noticed something odd. She appeared to be addressing her half-formed thoughts and phrases towards one place in particular. It was a small black book, nestled in a dip in the wall on the far side of the cave. It sounded as if Ginny was… well, quite frankly, it sounded like she was arguing with it. With the _book._

...Maybe it was a magical book?

After a few minutes, Ginny paced the length of the cavern one more time before veering off to grab the object of her attention. It seemed more worn in the light, the pages yellow and the cover battered like it had been through a lot. Still, there was something about it that made me somewhat uneasy to be near. Something that made my fur prickle, shoulders tense and hackles wanting to rise.

Ginny frowned, pulled out a quill from her pocket, flipped the book open, and started to write.

I mentally revised my assessment of the book. A diary or journal, perhaps? If a book like that was magical, then it was probably charmed to only open to the owner or something. Regardless, why would she be talking to it like it could talk back?

Ginny finished whatever she was writing, and resumed her pacing across the floor. The book was held in front of her face as she scrutinized it, fingers tapping impatiently on the spine. What was she waiting for? It wasn't like the book was going to answer her.

Except, I realized, it seemed as it if _could._

The youngest Weasley had turned her back on us just enough for us to see the letters that were _writing themselves_ across the page, in flowing script that was clearly not the same handwriting as hers. All of a sudden, the book seemed to take on a much more menacing cast in our eyes. If it could really talk back, then it must have had some sort of sentience. If it had some sort of sentience… then it could be very, _very,_ dangerous.

Cub winced, one hand coming up to rub at his scar. "I think," he murmured, "that we might have found another Horcrux. Spike, mind checking for me?"

Spike nodded, Aura flaring blue around him as his eyes flashed. It faded seconds later, and the expression on his face was grim as he jerked his head in a short nod.

That was all the confirmation we needed. Now, the problem was figuring out how to get the Horcrux away from Ginny.

For that matter, why did she even have it in the first place? She was seventh child of a seventh child, true, but as far as we'd known she was a Gryffindor to the bone. A prominent Light family well-known as being favored by Dumbledore, no less. She was the last person anyone would have expected to be the owner of a powerful Dark object. How would she have gotten it, for that matter?

So many questions, so few answers.

* * *

><p>"So," Cub started, "I think the safest way to get that book is for us to steal it."<p>

"Okay. When?" Spike asked. All seven of us lounging by the edge of the Astronomy Tower, Cub getting his homework on star charts done while we planned. Nobody else was there, since it was well past curfew and we had privacy wards up.

"If Ginny's got even a hint about how important that book is, she'll probably carry it with her all the time," Cub replied. "So the safest time might be at night. Sneak in, grab it from her dorm, and sneak out. We'll do it fast and subtle and hopefully it'll be destroyed before she even wakes up."

"Yeah, um, there's a problem with that. Guys can't get into a girl's dorm. Not human guys, at any rate," Devil pointed out. "There are wards against it. Getting through those would probably be more trouble than it's worth."

Cub frowned. "That doesn't extend to you all, though. You're not human. So… you guys steal it while I wait at the bottom of the stairs or something?"

"We'd probably have to miniaturize, but yeah. That could work," Draca mused. "Going to want to bring a bag to carry it in; who knows what it could do with physical contact. Spike, do have Psychic down yet?"

"It's still a bit shaky," Spike admitted, "but I can make it work."

"And after we have it, we can head straight down to the Chamber and set Fiendfyre on it," Cub said. "I mean, there's no reason to save it, since it doesn't look like it's any sort of special artifact like the diadem was. There's still one thing that bothers me, though…" He frowned, fingers tapping on the parchment of his homework.

"What is it?" I asked, head tilted sideways.

"Before, the Ancestor said that the one who came to her was a boy with pale skin and dark hair. Ginny might have a horcrux, and she might have been inside the Chamber, but unless she was in disguise-" Cub cut himself off with a frustrated huff. "It just doesn't make any sense. How did she get the horcrux in the first place? What's she trying to do with it? Why did she set the Ancestor on innocent students? _What was the point?_"

Silence fell. We looked around at each other, unable to come up with any answers.

"Well," Flare sighed after a moment, "we can always figure it out after we get rid of that horcrux."

* * *

><p>With Spike's Aura-sense acting as a homing beacon, it was fairly easy to find where Ginny had hidden the horcrux. Extracting it, however… well, that was a little more difficult.<p>

"Anyone know how to pick a lock?" Draca asked, examining Ginny's closed and bolted trunk. "Preferably one of us with actual limbs?"

"I've heard to humans being able to use hairpins and stuff," I commented, "but that requires opposable thumbs. Or very fine Psychic control."

"Which, unfortunately, I don't quite have yet," Spike sighed. "Right, then. Time to get _creative_."

* * *

><p>The weirdest part about the whole thing? For some reason, the book smelled like a bathroom. Like sewer water. It was <em>disgusting,<em> and I did not envy poor Spike who had to carry it.

"_Why_ did I have to be the one pokémon here that can hold stuff?" he groaned as we snuck out of the girl's dormitory. "Not just the smell, but this stuff's Aura is, like, _slimy._ What the heck. It feels really, _really_ wrong and I cannot wait until Cub it thing on fire."

"Quiet," Draca hissed as we crept down the hall. "Some of the students have pets, remember? And right now, the cats are bigger than we are."

I bared my teeth, allowing sparks to crackle off my unsheathed claws. "Maybe so, but I'm _stronger_ than they are."

"And when the students see their pets show up in the morning with scorch marks?"

"...Good point."

* * *

><p>Cub circled the book with a wary eye, using a long stick to prod at the cover. When nothing happened he used the stick to flip it open, then frowned at the sight of a completely blank page. A snap of his fingers and the rest of the pages flipped themselves until he reached the end of the book, all of it without a drop of ink in sight.<p>

"I could've sworn I saw her writing in it," he said to himself, sounding puzzled. "That wasn't just me, right? Where did those words go?"

"No, we saw it too," Glider confirmed. "It's not just you."

"Right..." Cub poked at the blank pages, then said, "Hand me a quill, please. I'm going to try something."

Draca hesitated before she handed Cub's bag over, uncertain. "Are you sure it's safe?"

"Probably not, but I'm _really_ curious now. And besides, I won't write in it without precautions," Cub pointed out. "I'll just control it from a safe distance and set up a barrier first before I do. If things go wrong, well, Fiendfyre and then we run for it. This _is_ the Room of Requirement, after all. It's likely one of the most magical rooms in the castle, so it should be fine."

I glanced around the empty, sterile room that had appeared when we had first entered, and did concede that point. It was stripped bare of anything flammable, made of what we suspected was a very flame-resistant material, and small enough that we wouldn't have to run a mile to get to the door.

"Fine," Draca sighed, and passed Cub the bag.

Cub dug out a quill, tossed it on top of the book, then used his magic in a sort of reverse-Protego to create a shimmering, dome-shaped barrier over both items. Once that was secured, he mimed picking the quill up and moved his hand like he was writing. The quill followed his movements, scribbling out a quick _Testing, testing_ on the first page.

After a moment, the words faded away. They were replaced with a sentence in different handwriting that said, _Hello, who are you? What are you testing?_

Cub froze. After a second, moving more slowly than before, he replied, _I'm testing to see what happens when I write in this book. Who are you?_

_Tom Riddle,_ came the flowing script. _Who are you, again?_

Cub dropped the quill and telekinetically slammed the book shut. "Right, that's confirmed. Let's just destroy it now," he gasped, and promptly set it on fire.

After a second, he flushed, realizing that he'd used normal fire, and hastily cast Fiendfyre on it instead. The book _screamed_ as it was devoured by the enchanted flames, black ink dripping out like blood that hissed and spat when it touched the fire. The rest of us scooted back ten feet, readying whatever Water- or Ground-type attacks we had to put out the flames if they spread too far.

The Horcrux was devoured in a minute, unholy shrieks fading as the roar of the Fiendfyre grew louder. As a dragon made of fire tried to leap out at us, Cub practically shouted the counterspell and let the flames die into nothing.

What was left behind was a charred husk of what was barely recognizable as the book, covered in ash and half-burned off. With another wave of his hand, Cub somehow Vanished it to wherever Vanished objects went- hopefully a place where it could never hurt anybody again.

"Well," Flare said after it was done, somewhat shakily, "at least that's one more down."

"And three more still to find," Cub sighed.


End file.
